Your Index Finger Length Reveals WHAT?
Hold your hand out. Are your index and ring fingers the same length or is the ring finger longer?
For most men, the ring finger is slightly longer, and in most women, the two fingers are the same length. But men whose fingers are the same length seem to have a special skill at scientific research.
Why? New Scientist reports that researchers from Bath University in Great Britain say this is due to above average prenatal levels of estrogen that aid their analytical skills. It is thought that estrogen causes the right side of the brain to develop, which is responsible for spatial and analytical skills. In other words, these scientists are in touch with their feminine side. (Some developmental genes, which would be impacted by exposure to estrogen and testosterone, control the formation of both the reproductive system and the fingers.)
The opposite is also true. While those who had a "female" pattern of hormone exposure in the womb became scientists, those who had a "male" pattern and whose ring finger is slightly longer than the index finger chose the field of social science, notes New Scientist.
In this study, all the researchers in the departments of chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics had index and ring fingers that were about the same length, a clearly feminine trait; however, fully 81 percent of them were male. But in the departments of economics, education, management, and social and policy sciences, most had a ring finger that was slightly longer than the index finger, a distinctly male trait, but only 66 percent of the sample was male.
"It's unnerving to think the profession I'm in was determined by the hormones I was exposed to in the womb," lead study author Mark Brosnan told New Scientist.
He speculates that exposure to unusually high or low levels of testosterone in male fetuses leads to the scientific brain, while average levels of hormone exposure lead to a social science brain.
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So, what's your hand like? Where do you fall?