From the same people who found out that schoolyard taunts are the least of obese children's worries, University of Michigan researchers have found out that people with high-testosterone levels may feel rewarded by other people's anger. Most people may feel uncomfortable when somebody gives them an angry look, but to some, an angered face may just be their fixer-upper. These findings could explain why some people like to tease others a lot.

According to University of Michigan's Associate Professor, Oliver Schultheiss, "perhaps teasers are reinforced by that fleeting 'annoyed look' on someone else's face and therefore will continue to heckle that person to get that look again and again... As long as it does not stay there for long, it's not perceived as a threat, but as a reward".

Here's how the researchers conducted this study - the researchers took saliva sample from the participants to measure testosterone, which is the hormone usually associated with dominance motivation. Then, the participants worked on a certain "learning task" - one complex sequence of keypresses was followed by an angry face on the screen. Another sequence was followed by a neutral, expressionless face. Finally, a third sequence was followed with no face.

Participants with high testosterone relative to other members of their sex, learned the complex sequence with an angry face better than the other two sequences. On the other hand, those with low testosterone did not show this kind of behavior. They are all not aware of the patterns in the sequences as they learned them. Lead author of the study, Michelle Wirth explained this by saying:

Better learning of a task associated with anger faces indicates that the anger faces were rewarding, as in a rat that learns to press a lever in order to receive a tasty treat. In that sense, anger faces seemed to be rewarding for high-testosterone people, but aversive for low-testosterone people.