# fingers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 1999, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349 "1999-06-17T02:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/1 "1999-06-17T02:42:00Z")
hold up your hand. which finger is longer, the index or the ring finger? Now, are you a male or female. Among all the people I’ve asked (my coworkers-about ten people), men have longer ring fingers, women have longer index fingers. granted, the amount of people i’ve asked is low, so does this hold true for you guys? and now, if it does, what does it mean? * * * Fippo- the very model of a modern major general ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/2 "1999-06-17T03:18:00Z")
on me they are practically the same length what does it mean? _shrugs_ I actually just wanted to ask a question - what is a “junior member” and why are you one? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/3 "1999-06-17T03:38:00Z")
## When I was a kid I didn’t have fingers. I had named those nifty appendages ‘thingers’ instead. I figured that I used them to pick up ‘things’ and add to that I don’t have the best hearing and viola!- thingers. “I’m not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.” – Calvin and Hobbes ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/4 "1999-06-17T04:05:00Z")
The only reference I can find is an old t.v. show called “THE INVADERS”. This would explain a few other things, too! * * * “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Hunter Thompson ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/5 "1999-06-17T04:27:00Z")
Okey… I’m female, and my index finger is longer than my ring finger. My husband is male… and his fingers make no sense. On his right hand, his ring finger is longer than his index finger, but on his left hand it’s reversed. He has a woman’s left hand. He’s special! That’s why I love him 🙂 * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/6 "1999-06-17T04:29:00Z")
I’ve read that it has to do with virility, in other words, the amount of sex hormone in the body. Testosterone causes the ring finger to be significantly longer than the index finer while estrogen causes them to be the same length. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/7 "1999-06-17T04:55:00Z")
Here’s a data point: male, ring finger longer. This could be a REALLY dull thread… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/8 "1999-06-17T05:25:00Z")
I’m female and my ring finger is slightly (like less than a mm) longer. But then again, the more I look at it, it seems like it might be the result of the way my fingers lean in toward each other. yepitsme. I think people are junior members until after they’ve made their first post. * * * “It is more from carelessness about the truth than from intentional lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.” -Samuel Johnson ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/9 "1999-06-17T06:20:00Z")
Male. Ring finger longer. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/10 "1999-06-17T06:30:00Z")
male ring finger a lot longer. Does that mean I am REALLY full of testosterone? Would explain why I am so bloody horny all the time * * * Cogito Ergo Vroom I think therefore I ride fast… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/11 "1999-06-17T13:19:00Z")
Left hand: index finger shorter by about 1/4 inch. Right hand: index finger longer, less than 1/4 inch but noticeable. I don’t think it has anything to do with gender but I have no sources to cite, one way or the other. * * * Cave Diem! Carpe Canem! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/12 "1999-06-17T13:24:00Z")
Male. Ring finger longer on left hand, index finger longer on right hand. * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [ckeller@schicktech.com](mailto:ckeller@schicktech.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/13 "1999-06-17T13:33:00Z")
Is it true that in males, the length of the ring finger is related to the size of the … um… well… Also, of course, if your ring finger is as long as your middle finger, it means you’re a werewolf. Other people, like Liz Taylor, have been married so many times, the ring finger on the left hand has atrophied. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/14 "1999-06-17T13:39:00Z")
male: both ring fingers longer * * * President of the Vernon Dent fan club. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/15 "1999-06-17T16:17:00Z")
Male, right-handed. I took a ruler and measured from the center of each finger to the tip (excluding fingernail) and found that all four of the digits in question were the same length - 2 13/16", to be precise. I measured because when I eyeballed them, the ring fingers appeared longer, but that’s because of the way they are attached to the palm. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 1999, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/16 "1999-06-18T05:21:00Z")
Male, ring finger longer. But, I play guitar and don’t know if I was born this way or if the puppies have somehow stretched. If this post had involved the middle finger would it have been signed “Flippo”? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 1999, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/17 "1999-06-18T05:24:00Z")
Uh-oh. Fem - ring fingers longer on both hands. And I don’t even drink beer! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/18 "1999-06-17T20:01:00Z")
“Is it true that in males, the length of the ring finger is related to the size of the … um… well…” - CDex um…nope after extensive research done by some of my friends and me, we have conluded that the whole hand size = penis length thing is just a myth made up by men with large hands. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/19 "1999-06-17T20:07:00Z")
When I hold my hand naturally, they’re in a dead heat. But when I stretch each finger as long as it can, my index is longer. And when I hold my hand sideways (90 degrees from my forearm) my ring finger is much longer. So it depends how I hold my hand. -Quadell ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349/20 "1999-06-17T22:49:00Z")
I’m female and both of my ring fingers are longer than my index fingers. Strange, I’m seeing a trend here, but I’m the total opposite. I’m kinda concerned! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingers/1349.md?page=2)