Your hands can reveal a lot about you, including your grooming preferences (or lack thereof), your profession, and even your interests, but your fingers can reveal even more.
Look at this. Do your index and ring fingers differ in length? The 2D:4D ratio, which is the length of your second digit divided by the length of your fourth digit, or the length of your ring finger divided by the length of your index finger, measures the amount of testosterone you were exposed to as a fetus.
You absorbed more testosterone in the womb compared to men with large ratios the smaller your 2D:4D ratio—how long your ring finger is compared to your index—is. And it turns out that hormones like testosterone have an odd effect on how you behave toward women, according to research from the Universities of Oxford and McGill that was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Here are five personality traits that your fingers show.
Table of Contents
Promiscuity
According to Oxford University researchers, if your ring finger is longer than your index finger, you are predisposed to promiscuity; if not, you are hard-wired for monogamy. They compared their “2D:4D” ratio (again, that’s the ratio between the lengths of their index and ring fingers) with the results of a sexual habits questionnaire that 585 American and British volunteers completed. They discovered that while 57 percent of men and 47 percent of women are more likely to cheat, 53 percent of women and 43 percent of men are more likely to be faithful.
Niceness
In the McGill study, 155 participants checked off a list of behaviors (either agreeable or quarrelsome) they carried out over the course of 20 days by completing forms for each social interaction lasting five minutes or longer. According to research, men who have long ring fingers and short index fingers are generally more kind to women.
In comparison to men with large digit ratios, men with small digit ratios logged roughly a third more agreeable behaviors and roughly a third fewer quarrelsome behaviors. They were also nicer to their female friends and coworkers, not just the women they were having sexual relations with.
Wanting to Have More Children
The McGill researchers discovered that men with smaller digit ratios are also more likely to have more children.
According to Debbie Moskowitz, lead author and professor of psychology at McGill, “Our research suggests they have more harmonious relationships with women; these behaviors support the formation and maintenance of relationships with women”. “This might explain why they have more children on average.”
Willingness to Make a Compromise
Researchers suspect that because men with small digit ratios reported approximately one-third more agreeable behaviors and one-third fewer quarrelsome behaviors than men with large digit ratios, they are also more willing to compromise.
Ability to Listen
“When with women, men with smaller ratios were more likely to listen attentively, smile and laugh, or compliment the other person,” says Moskowitz.
