Measure the length of your finger

Measure the length of your fingers.

Every now and then there is an article or piece of news that is hard for me to determine whether it is a serious or joking matter. One of these is the piece of research that claims that the length of a child’s index and ring finger has a correlation with their math and literacy scores.

As reported by the Medical News (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=72170&nfid)...” In a study to be published in the British Journal of Psychology, scientists compared the finger lengths of 75 children with their Standardized Assessment Test (SAT) scores. They found a clear link between a child's performance in numeracy and literacy tests and the relative lengths of their index (pointing) and ring fingers.”

The article explains that scientists believe that the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb affect both brain development and finger length.

The researchers of this phenomenon explain that testosterone is associated with development of areas of the brain that have to do with spatial and mathematical skills, and estrogen with verbal ability"Interestingly, these hormones are also thought have a say in the relative lengths of our index and ring fingers. Therefore the finger length ration (index finger to ring finger) gives an indication of the exposure to these hormones in the womb and consequently a prediction of the numeracy and literacy abilities of the child.

Here is what the article reports…” 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.”

But what about high prenatal exposure of testosterone in girls? And something else seems to be missing here. If the girls have low testosterone and high literacy, does this also mean that boys will low testosterone will have high literacy?

There are several missing pieces here and I would need to read the entire research report to completely unravel the gender stereotyping of boys being better at Math and girls at Language and Literacy. In the meantime I have several questions playing around in my mind. What other factors could possibly affect finger length? What other body part ratios could we use to predict our child’s performance in school?

The researchers do warn that finger length measurements are not to replace SAT tests. (just yet, maybe?)