Monday, November 8, 2010

Can finger lengths predict musical ability, earning potential, sports wins and sexual orientation?

Ring finger.JPGThe ring finger on this hand is circled.

Scientists examining fossils have discovered that Neanderthals were exposed to more testosterone during development which is likely to make them more unreconstructed in their behaviour.

That means they were more likely to start fights over mates and hierarchy in the group and more likely top have multiple partners.

The team from Liverpool, Oxford, Southampton and Calgary Universities, studied the fossilised finger bones of extinct apes, Neanderthals and hominins – extinct members of the human family – to learn more about their hormonal activity.

It is known that the longer the ring finger is compared to the index finger is a mark of how much testosterone exposure there was in the womb.

High levels of the hormones increase the length of the fourth finger in comparison to the second finger, resulting in a low index to ring finger ratio.

The team found that the fossil index fingers of Neanderthals were longer compared with the ring finger than most living humans, which suggests that they had been exposed to higher levels of testosterone.

via Neanderthals really were sex-obsessed thugs - Telegraph.

Palm reading is fun, but I put it right up there with astrology in terms of usefulness. Since I learned about the failed science of phrenology, I haven't thought body attributes can tell much about a person's mind. Is there anything to this finger length idea?





When they looked at boy's and girl's performance separately, the researchers found a clear link between high prenatal testosterone exposure, as measured by digit ratio, and higher numeracy SAT scores in males.  They also found a link between low prenatal testosterone exposure, which resulted in a shorter ring finger compared with the index finger, and higher literacy SAT scores for girls.

... Manning recruited 54 male musicians from a British symphony orchestra. He discovered that these men had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios than controls -- they had a very "masculine" ratio. Even more striking, when he compared the top-ranked "first" musicians with their lower-ranked colleagues -- a measure of their relative ability-the former had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios. Could testosterone really predispose the brain to be more tuned in to music? Manning thinks so.

via Viewzone | link

Professor John Manning from the University of Central Lancashire's department of psychology, who first realised that sex hormone exposure in the womb influences finger length, agreed. He said certain individual characteristics correlate better with finger length than others. "For example, if you had a group of runners and they were about to start a race I could predict reasonably well who was going to win based on their finger length.

via BBC

High testosterone traders make more money on the days when the amount of the hormone in the blood was highest, indicating their profitability was driven by their sensitivity to the hormone as well as the amount of it. And those traders tend to make the most money on highly volatile days because the testosterone boosts confidence, increases appetite for risk, and gives more sheer mental ability.... The researchers did not say how to increase a baby's exposure to testosterone in the womb. But the study suggests that if you want to hire money-making traders; you should take the trader's 2D:4D measure during the interview process.

via Bloggingstocks

My ring finger is quite longer than my index finger, noticeably more than in either of the heterosexual male illustrations above. I must be part Neanderthal, but I definitely don't have the body builder thing going on. Still, I do have a good deal of competitiveness and I'm related to William the Conqueror and King Henry I... What causes testosterone exposure in the womb?

For amusement, here is the finger length of openly gay Sir Elton John, net worth ~$500 million.

http://mixzona.ru/song_pic/fe/fecd0bd3347095bf828289218f75ba91

 

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