Finger Length

No, this is not some profane post about flipping people off. It's science, people! Now- take your hand and put out in front of you. Stick the fingers together. Look at the length of your ring finger(4d). Now look at the length of your index finger(2d). Which one is longer? It really does matter. Click in to find out why.

It turns out that the ratio of the length of those two fingers gives an indication of how much testosterone and estrogen you received while in the womb. If your index finger is shorter than your ring finger, you received extra testosterone. If your index finger is longer than your ring finger, you received extra estrogen. In general, men tend to have shorter index fingers, and women tend to have longer index fingers.

The interesting thing about these studies, is that this ratio is a pretty good indication of ability in sports and science.

Sports
A study looked at 607 female twins, to evaluate any link between this finger ratio and sporting ability. Guess what they found?

The researchers found women with longer fourth fingers were significantly more likely to be among the top achievers in all the sports listed. In particular, they were likely to excel at running, and sports such as football and tennis, which require running prowess.

I remember watching a Discovery Channel (or equivalent) program about this a few years ago. A researcher performed an interesting, if terribly nonscientific, field study. He grabbed 5 or 6 random teenage boys from a group playing soccer. He measured their 2D/4D ratio and predicted who would be the best athlete from the ratios. He then had them run a footrace. Guess what? They finished in the order he predicted. Cool, eh?

Science
Another study looked at male and female scientists. They found that scientists had roughly equal index and ring fingers, indicating that they received about the same level of estrogen and testosterone. The study postulates that the scientist's left and right brains developed equally because of the dual prenatal hormone boost.

A survey of the finger lengths of over 100 male and female academics at the University by senior Psychology lecturer Dr Mark Brosnan has found that those men teaching hard science like mathematics and physics tend to have index fingers as long as their ring fingers, a marker for unusually high estrogen levels for males.

Any guesses as to my finger length ratio? Well, I'm not terribly athletic, and I'm pretty good at math and science. So, if these studies are correct, my fingers should be about equal. Take a peek. They look pretty equal to me.

An informal survey of the other engineers at my work shows similar finger length ratios to mine.

What's your finger ratio? Does it match these studies in indicating your skill in sports and science? Have your say in the comments.