[ExI] finger length predicts SAT performance

[PJ Manney]

Okay, this is one of those wacky ones I just couldn't pass up!  And
damn it, if it isn't on the money for me.  I've always been accused of
having a male brain.  Turns out I've got the finger length and SAT
scores to prove it!

Longer ring finger length = more testosterone?!  What's a longer ring
finger have to do with male natural selection???

PJ

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070523/sc_livescience/fingerlengthpredictssatperformance

Finger Length Predicts SAT Performance

A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can
be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new
research claims.

Kids with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to
have higher math scores than literacy or verbal scores on the college
entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio are
likely to have higher reading and writing, or verbal, scores versus
math scores.

Scientists have known that different levels of the hormones
testosterone and estrogen in the womb account for the different finger
lengths, which are a reflection of areas of the brain that are more
highly developed than others, said psychologist Mark Brosnan of the
University of Bath, who led the study.

Exposure to testosterone in the womb is said to promote development of
areas of the brain often associated with spatial and mathematical
skills, he said. That hormone makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen
exposure does the same for areas of the brain associated with verbal
ability and tends to lengthen the index finger relative to the ring
finger.

To test the link to children's scores on the College Board's
Scholastic Assessment Test (for which the name has changed a number of
times in the past 100 years), Brosnan and his colleagues made
photocopies of children's palms and measured the length of their index
and ring fingers using calipers accurate to 0.01 millimeters. They
used the finger-length ratios as a proxy for the levels of
testosterone and estrogen exposure.

The researchers then looked at boys' and girls' test performances
separately and compared them to finger-length ratio measurements. They
found a clear link between high prenatal testosterone exposure,
indicated by the longer index finger compared to the ring finger, and
higher scores on the math SAT.

Similarly, they found higher literacy SAT scores for the girls among
those who had lower prenatal testosterone exposure, as indicated by a
shorter ring finger compared with the index finger.

The researchers also compared the finger-lengths ratios to all the
children's SAT scores and found that a relatively longer ring
finger—indicating greater prenatal exposure to testosterone—meant a
wider gap in scores for math versus literacy (writing and critical
reading).

"Finger ratio provides us with an interesting insight into our innate
abilities in key cognitive areas," Brosnan said, in a prepared
statement. The results will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the
British Journal of Psychology.

In the future, his team will see if finger-length ratios are related
to other cognitive and behavioral issues, such as technophobia, career
paths and possibly dyslexia.