Short-term changes in fathers' hormones during father-child play: Impacts of paternal attitudes and experience

► Hormones play a role in paternal care. ► Little is known about how human fathers' hormones respond to father-child interaction. ► After father-child play, prolactin and cortisol decrease, while testosterone is unaffected. ► Fathers' experience and psychological disposition affect their hormonal changes. ► Human paternal physiology is highly responsive to offspring interaction, as in other species.