title: The association between athleticism, prenatal testosterone, and finger length.
abstract: Research suggests that prenatal levels of testosterone are related to finger length development and traits beneficial to athletic skill, such as power, endurance, visual-spatial skills, or sensation seeking and dominance behavior. In men, the second digit to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) has been shown to correlate with success in competitive levels of football (soccer), which suggests that the 2D:4D ratio is a possible marker for level of attainment in sport. The purpose of this study was to explore the 2D:4D relationships between sports and make comparisons with nonathletes. A multiple group posttest-only design was used. Participants included 138 male volunteers with 92 intercollegiate National Collegiate Athletic Association division I athletes and 46 nonathletes who were not varsity athletes. The independent variable was group (crew, football, gymnastics, soccer, nonathlete). The dependent variable was the 2D:4D ratio. No significant differences were noted between the athletes and nonathletes (p = 0.182). Significant differences were found among the different groups (p = 0.000), with significantly lower ratios between football and crew (p = 0.000), football and nonathletes (p = 0.030), and gymnastics and crew (p = 0.001). This research provides a stronger level of evidence that the 2D:4D ratio may help indicate potential athleticism or competition-level achievement, but the external validity may be limited to only specific sports.
authors: Department of Kinesiology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. moffitd@temple.edu
authors: Dani M
authors: DM
authors: Moffit
authors: C Buz
authors: CB
authors: Swanik
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D005385:Fingers / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone