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- Scientists say finger length may represent your personality
- The 2D:4D ratio is linked to everything from mental illness to athletic success
For centuries, palm readers have promised paying customers that the lines on their hands hold secrets to their future.
But while there’s no real love line waiting to be read, some scientists believe that our hands can really tell us a lot about ourselves.
More specifically, scientists studied something called the 2D:4D ratio, which is the ratio of the index finger to the ring finger.
This ratio has been linked to everything from sports performance and obesity to aggression and even psychopathic tendencies.
But not all scientists are convinced. Read this article to find out what your hands reveal about you.
Although the difference in digits may seem quite arbitrary, scientists suggest it may indicate how they grew in the womb.
Dr Ben Serpel, a sports scientist at the University of New England, told MailOnline that the 2D:4D ratio is related to the mother’s hormone levels.
Dr. Serpel explained: “The 2D:4D ratio is thought to be established in utero as early as the end of the first trimester and is influenced by prenatal testosterone exposure.
“Women generally have a higher 2D:4D ratio than men, meaning that testosterone is an androgenic hormone, influencing what many people consider to be more ‘masculine’ characteristics.” ”
He also points out that prenatal testosterone is associated with subsequent testosterone sensitivity.
Because this ratio is associated with male hormones, researchers often focus on characteristics thought to be associated with testosterone sensitivity.
ring finger is longer than index finger
If your ring finger is significantly longer than your index finger, this means your 2D:4D ratio is low.
It is worth noting that men almost always have a lower ratio than women because they are exposed to more testosterone before birth.
However, if you have a very low 2D:4D ratio as a man or woman, there may be some cause for celebration.
Dr. Serpell’s research identified low ratios among Ruby players, surgeons, and political journalists as a potential sign of success.
The reason is that testosterone reactivity is related to the ability to receive and process information.
He said: “They claim that 2D:4D may predict the ability to stay focused. Furthermore, they claim that by staying focused on a task, people with low 2D:4D can succeed at that task.” To do.
Other studies have also found an association between a low 2D:4D ratio and physical fitness parameters in young professional soccer players.
In 2021, an international team of researchers published a paper in the journal BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, measuring the fitness and finger length of 24 athletes under the age of 17.
What they discovered was that the larger the ring finger relative to the index finger, the better the athlete’s strength and fitness performance.
However, it is not only a positive thing; a low ratio is also thought to be associated with some “negative” characteristics.
A 2005 study of 298 University of Alberta students found that a lower 2D:4D ratio in men was associated with higher aggression.
Researchers even found that men with lower ratios received more penalties during the ice hockey season.
Perhaps most shockingly, this low rate is also associated with propensity for opioid abuse disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and even psychopathy.
Researchers say the findings suggest that psychopathology may have “biological roots.”
Psychoanalyst Dr Seyyed Separ Hashemian, who worked on the paper, told MailOnline:
“The more signs of psychopathology there were in the adult participants, the more likely they were exposed to high concentrations of testosterone and low concentrations of estrogen before birth.”
But he also points out that while testosterone may predispose a person to certain behaviors, it is not a person’s “immutable destiny.”
He further notes that “some characteristics associated with a low 2D:4D ratio may be viewed negatively in certain situations, but can be advantageous in other situations, such as competitive or difficult situations. in some cases.”
index finger is longer than ring finger
On the other hand, sometimes the index finger is longer than the ring finger.
In this case, the 2D:4D ratio will be higher.
In addition to being associated with the opposite of all traits, some studies have focused specifically on this trait.
A higher 2D:4D ratio is thought to be a marker of lower testosterone and higher levels of estrogen exposure in utero.
Research suggests that a higher ratio is associated with greater pain levels in a variety of situations.
In a 2017 paper, researchers at the Medical University of Lodz found that out of 100 men and women who underwent nasal reconstruction surgery, women were more likely to experience more pain after surgery.
But on the positive side, a study conducted by the International Headache Center in Beijing in 2015 found that women with a higher 2D:4D ratio were less likely to experience migraines.
A 2022 study, also from the University of Lodz, points to the role of estrogen and testosterone in the formation of gender-specific fat deposits.
According to one research group, women tend to store more fat in their arms, legs, and thighs than men.
Based on this assumption, researchers investigated the finger proportions of 125 adults to see if this correlated with excess weight gain.
They found that higher rates were associated with obesity progression in both men and women.
Does this really work?
This list of characteristics associated with finger size only scratches the surface of the thousands of studies published on this subject.
The 2D:4D ratio is also associated with sexual orientation, parental poverty, right-handedness, menstrual pain, grip strength, jumping height, and the likelihood of becoming a firefighter.
But you’re not alone if you’re starting to feel that the 2D:4D ratio is related to almost every conceivable characteristic, and not everyone thinks this is a good thing.
Dr Gareth Richards, a psychologist at Newcastle University, explained that the basic problem is that this all relies on the assumption that finger length is a good indicator of prenatal hormones.
Dr Richards told MailOnline: “The evidence that this is in fact the case is far from convincing.”
But if there isn’t enough evidence that the 2D:4D ratio actually measures what it claims, why are there so many studies claiming to have found associations between finger length and various traits? Is it?
Professor James Smoliga, a physiologist at Tufts University, told MailOnline that this was due to something called the ‘file drawer effect’.
He says, “What happens is that when people make hundreds of millions of different measurements, there is no biological cause-and-effect relationship for most of them.”
“But it’s just bad luck and something will turn out to be statistically significant.
“The reason this is called the file drawer effect is that if we find something statistically significant, we publish it, and if it doesn’t, we revert to the file draw.”
To prove his point, Professor Smoliga created an experiment deliberately designed to find spurious relationships.
He used X-rays to measure the finger bones of more than 180 subjects, recording both their body fat percentage and their luck in a variety of completely random games.
What he discovered was that the 2D:4D ratio had a statistical relationship to body fat composition.
But it had even more to do with how lucky someone is to draw a random poker hand from a deck.
Apparently, Professor Smoliga wasn’t trying to prove that finger ratios bring good luck, but that with enough effort, you can tie the 2D:4D ratio to anything. .
The statistical association is about as strong as anything else related to the 2D:4D ratio, but it is so small that it is more likely to be a random chance than a real effect.
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