Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.
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Women with low 2D:4D ratios have stronger grip strength than women with higher ratios, according to a trio of researchers. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, four people describe how to measure finger length and grip strength in women.
Exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb leads to human males born with a lower 2D:4D ratio and higher grip strength and overall heightened physical performance. The researchers found that the same is true for women. The 2D:4D ratio is the length of the index and ring finger. The ring finger in some people is shorter than the index finger in others. Exposure to testosterone in the womb has been shown to affect the difference.
The researchers measured ring and index finger length in 125 healthy women in Austria, taking into account age, environment, ethnicity and exercise as possible impactors of finger length. Each woman had her hand grip strength measured.
The researchers found a correlation between lower 2D:4D ratios and grip strength. The higher the grip strength, the longer the ring finger was. They did not test the ratio's link to testosterone exposure in the womb, but they think it's a likely association, considering it's been shown to be the case in men.
Other factors attributed to the 2D:4D ratio include this new finding. People with lower 2D:4D ratios tend to make more "masculine" food choices when hungry, according to a team in Sweden. A team at the University found that high income women tend to give birth to children with lower 2D:4D ratios.
The Handgrip strength and 2D : 4D in women: homogeneous samples challenge the (apparent) gender paradoxes was published in the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. There is a DOI: 10.1098/rspb. 2021.2328.
The Royal Society B has a journal.
The Science X Network will be launched in 2021.
The study found that women with low 2D:4D finger ratios had stronger grip strength.
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