In the Dark

I was intrigued by an article I found at the weekend which reports on a (no doubt rigorous) scientific study that claims a connection between the relative lengths of index and ring fingers and the propensity to be promiscuous. The assertion is that people whose ring finger is longer than their index finger like to play around, while those whose index finger is longer than their ring finger are inclined to fidelity. Obviously, since the study involves the University of Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology, there can be do doubt whatsoever about its reliablity or scientific credibility, just like the dozens of other things supposed to be correlated with digit ratio. Ahem.

I do remember a similar study some time ago that claimed that men with with a longer index finger (2D) than ring finger (4D) (i.e. with a 2D:4D digit ratio greater than one) were much more likely to be gay than those with a digit ratio lower than one. Taken with this new finding it proves what we all knew all along: that heterosexuals are far more likely to be promiscuous than homosexuals.

For the record, here is a photograph of my left hand (which, on reflection, is similar to my right, and which clearly shows a 2D:4D ratio greater than unity):

Inspired by the stunning application of the scientific method described in the report, I have decided to carry out a rigorous study of my own. I have heard that, at least among males, it is much more common to have digit ratio less than one than greater than one but I can’t say I’ve noticed it myself. Furthermore previously unanswered question in the literature is whether there is a connection between digit ratio and the propensity to read blogs. I will know subject this to rigorous scientific scrutiny by inviting readers of this blog to complete the following simply survey. I look forward to publishing my findings in due course in the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

PS. The actual paper on which the report was based is by Rafael Wlodarski, John Manning, and R. I. M. Dunbar, Biol. Lett.: 2015 11 20140977; DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0977.

This entry was posted on February 9, 2015 at 11:48 am and is filed under Bad Statistics, Biographical with tags index finger, promiscuity, psychology, ring finger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.