Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Panich52

(5,829 posts)
Fri Feb 20, 2015, 11:42 PM Feb 2015

Link between relative lengths of index and ring fingers in men and behavior towards women


Can you judge a man by his fingers? Link between relative lengths of index and ring fingers in men and behavior towards women

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/fkx6Mu4k3HE/150218122110.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Men with short index fingers and long ring fingers are on average nicer towards women. This phenomenon stems from their fetal life, and the hormones these men have been exposed to in their mother's womb. The findings might help explain why these men have more children.
..
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Link between relative lengths of index and ring fingers in men and behavior towards women (Original Post) Panich52 Feb 2015 OP
Well crap, my index finger is longer than my ring finger F4lconF16 Feb 2015 #1
INTERESTING. Warren DeMontague Feb 2015 #3
My ring finger is about 1/4" longer than my index finger. BillZBubb Feb 2015 #2
A high digit ratio has also been associated with lower sperm count jakeXT Feb 2015 #4
It's associated with a lot of things but it's so junk science MillennialDem Feb 2015 #5
Until there is some reliable method to measure prenatal testosterone levels we'll be stuck jakeXT Feb 2015 #6

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
3. INTERESTING.
Sat Feb 21, 2015, 02:08 AM
Feb 2015

Well, that's another data point that is going into DU's giant file, is it not.




I'm the opposite! My index finger is significantly shorter than my ring finger. The middle one is exceptionally long, too.

"here's the church, here's the steeple" so they say.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
4. A high digit ratio has also been associated with lower sperm count
Sat Feb 21, 2015, 06:25 AM
Feb 2015




Hand with index finger being shorter than the ring finger, resulting in a small 2D:4D ratio, pointing to a high exposure to testosterone in the uterus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio#cite_note-42
 

MillennialDem

(2,367 posts)
5. It's associated with a lot of things but it's so junk science
Sun Feb 22, 2015, 03:59 AM
Feb 2015

My index fingers are longer than my index fingers - I often wondered if it's because I'm mtf trans but looking at the list of things that are on that list some match some don't. Fairly close to 50/50 though. FWIW my wife who is also trans has slightly longer ring fingers than index fingers

"The more this, the more likely that" is utter silliness as it is not really science, as it does not really predict anything on an individual level. Even statistically speaking the correlation is so weak it's basically meaningless. If for example a high 2D:4D person had depression 95% of the time and a low 2D:4D person only had it 2% of the time I think you could draw a relevant conclusion - but it's more like 9.1% and 7.8%. Interesting, but beyond mild interest who cares? It won't tell you by looking at someone's fingers or not whether they have depression or anything else about them with any reasonable degree of accuracy. And of course the most important thing is to treat the people with depression.... not treat the people with high 2D:4D.

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
6. Until there is some reliable method to measure prenatal testosterone levels we'll be stuck
Sun Feb 22, 2015, 05:39 AM
Feb 2015

with not knowing for sure

Prenatal endocrine influences on sexual orientation and on sexually differentiated childhood behavior

...

A third focus for future research might be on identifying additional ways to assess the early hormone environment in healthy individuals. The literally hundreds of studies that have been published in the past dozen or so years relating the 2D:4D finger ratio to various behaviors and other characteristics that show sex differences provide evidence of interest in such measures. Unfortunately, studies of 2D:4D have produced inconsistent results, even in large samples. Another approach has been to look at testosterone in amniotic fluid samples, but this approach is limited to women referred for amniocentesis for clinical reasons, so not necessarily representative of the general population. In addition, only one sample of amniotic fluid at a single timepoint, usually uncontrolled for time of day, is available. One report on extreme groups from a large population sample suggests that maternal testosterone during pregnancy might provide a window into the hormone environment of the female fetus [72]. Although maternal hormones appear far from fetal hormones, there appears to be a substantial correlation between the two [46], probably because of genetic relatedness [60;128]. One advantage of maternal samples, either of blood or of saliva, is that they can be obtained repeatedly in the population at large. This potential window into hormones during early development deserves additional attention.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296090/


At least the BBC can do some running experiments with their digit ratio.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Science»Link between relative len...