Google abounds with other articles about the “2D:4D ratio”.
So apparently I’ve got man hands. On both hands, my index finger is shorter than my ring finger. If you’re curious about your own fingers, get a ruler and measure from the bottom crease to the tip. You can also put your right hand (where apparently the differences tend to be the most pronounced) on a scanner and take the measurements with imaging software.
Do you think there’s something to this research, based on your own personality and health characteristics? Because I do. So naturally I wonder what the greater implications of this research might be. Will a 2D:4D ratio ever be used to corroborate (or refute) someone’s claim that they are transgender? Will it be used to pinpoint the kind of psychotropic medicines a patient might respond best to? I wonder if women who are incarcerated tend to have more masculinized finger ratios. Are male criminals more likely to have even more masculinized finger ratios than non-criminal males? If the best women athletes tend to have low 2D:4D ratios, do they have an unfair advantage over women with high 2D:4D ratios? Would it be ethical for a tech company to use the 2D:4D ratio as a hiring criterion? Will we see prenatal drugs that promise to maintain the “natural” hormone balance for the developing fetus? Would pregnant mothers who experience a lot of stress be encouraged to take such drugs? Are people with finger digit ratios that are discordant with their biological sex “undesirable”, or are they just different?
Would it be unethical for a mother to take hormones to intentionally promote masculine or feminine traits in her baby?
Male, significantly longer ring than index finger on both hands, but commenting mostly to say that “it is well known” is usually best read as “I claim with no real evidence.”
Searching a bit it seems to be possibly true but not so completely clear.
I’m a man, with longer index than ring finguers (i.e. with the more ‘feminine’ hand morphology). I also have several of the traits listed here as being associated with high digit ratios:
On my left hand, the index and ring finger are the same length. On my right hand, the ring finger is considerably longer. Does that mean I have multiple personalities? Mosaic twin?
My right index finger is slightly longer than my ring finger but on the left hand its reversed partly by me having crushed my ring finger; it healed a little longer.
Ring fingers a little longer than index fingers. I’m relatively short fingered altogether, generally built with wider rather than longer bones so I don’t know what that means. Not great at 3D rotations sometimes, other times I do pretty well, and I have ADD which may explain that.
And yes it would be unethical just to promote those characteristics.
Female, ring finger noticeably longer than index finger. I was a tomboy, and am bisexual, but definitely not a lesbian-- most very definitely bi. But I did a few girly things as a kid, like being really into ballet, and taking ballet classes, much longer than most girls do.
I am very good with 3D imaging and mechanical drawing. I am terrible at math beyond basic algebra and geometry-- although I excel at geometry-- first math I ever excelled at. I also do very well with probability and statistics, because it is very easy for me to clear the cobwebs of intuition from my head, and handle things like “Coins that have flipped heads 50 times in a row are not ‘due’ for a tails.” And the Monty Hall problem was obvious to me, because the influence of the host as a confounding variable was immediately apparent.
I also apparently do a “man” thing, where, when someone complains about a problem, I either offer a logical solution, or explain why they could have anticipated the problem, instead of sympathizing.
And in the Army, I preferred to work with men on tasks like loading and unloading, or setting up equipment, because men just get it done, no matter whether they like one another or not. Women will let extraneous bickering slow them down to a crawl.
I also am very successful at building muscle tissue. When I lifted weights in my 20s, I achieved some very impressive results.
However, I am not a man, and don’t want to be one. If I woke up as a man tomorrow, I’d shoot myself. I like other people being men, but the idea of me being one is repellent to me. I have lots of women friends who are all different kinds of people.
The root causes of being transgender and the physical manifestations are still only in the “strong evidence” phase, of which exposure levels to fetal testosterone does not really fall within the top-10 most likely characteristics. Brain studies with MRI and fMRI, on the other hand, are something which a person could push with much more evidence.
My fingers are about equal length, FWIW. Then again, I have a modest intersex condition.
Male here, my ring finger is longer than my index finger, I should theoretically I guess have the more “masculine traits” I find a lot of it but not all holds true. I’m more muscular, less inhibited, aggressive than some people, I’m musically talented, but I’m only average in math and actually always tested higher in verbal knowledge so just like anything else I don’t think you can just break down someone’s entire personality or existence based on some physical or genetic characteristics. I also have Morton’s Toe where the second toe is longer than the big toe but I’ve never read that has anything to do with hormone exposure in utero, but rather that it was just a natural variation.
On my left hand, the ring finger is shorter by about 1/16" and this is reversed on my right hand. Male and right handed FWIW. I can rotate 3D figures with some difficulty. Geometry is not my strong suit. Algebra is.