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"Finger length and SAT scores"

36 Comments -

1 – 36 of 36
Anonymous tommy said...

My ring finger is longer. My verbal and mathematical SAT scores were both high, but about the same.

5/24/07, 10:23 PM

Anonymous Theresa said...

And, don't forget about the 2D:4D ratio in relation to autism/Asperger's (ring fingers tend to be longer than index):

The 2nd to 4th Digit Ratio and Autism
http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/docs/papers/2002_Manning_etal.pdf

5/24/07, 10:44 PM

Anonymous Theresa said...

And, don't forget about the 2D:4D ratio in relation to autism/Asperger's (ring fingers tend to be longer):

http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/docs/papers/2002_Manning_etal.pdf

5/24/07, 11:01 PM

Blogger Daniel said...

At first I want to say thank you for the pposting, which me know more knowledge, my close friend on EbonyFriends.com and my ring finger are long.

5/24/07, 11:34 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Que es este?

"Brand's colleagues in psychology also did not like him achieving publicity for his views. Thus for him to have articulated the long-standing (though little publicised) expert consensus that some forms of paedophilia are empirically harmless (when involving intelligent and uncoerced adolescents) was, his colleagues alleged, 'the last straw.' Yet what exactly was "disgraceful" in Brand's pointing to the empirical evidence about paedophilia -- or to the empirical evidence about race and single-parenting -- and indicating his conclusion that mercy should be shown to the accused Nobelist?"

- From the 1990s Chris Brand website, a link from your most recent article

Not only is the website a jumble that makes little sense with conflicting, half finished thoughts. It included this little gem about "paedophilia" which is where I stopped reading. I naively assumed the acceptance of man-boy love was a threat from extreme multiculturalists. I'm also very concerned about how one gathers the "empirical evidence".

From all reports, "paedophilia" is tolerated in Mexico...

5/24/07, 11:35 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd like to see a lot more research on this subject before signing on. Relative finger length may or may not have predictive results, if it does it should be easily replicable by independent studies.

It seems to remind people of phrenology which would also explain Steve why people are reticent.

5/24/07, 11:54 PM

Anonymous tommy said...

A few genetic traits I'm curious about:

How many guys here have unusually thin wrists? I do.

How many of you can roll your tongues? I can.

How many of you have hands that, when relaxed, naturally curl up into a ball like they might when you are holding a broom handle or the handle of a mug? This isn't an effect of gravity. It occurs when you have your palms up, not only when palms are down. I'm not sure if this is common or not. It seems like some people have hands that sit fairly flat when relaxed. My fingers curl up completely.

5/25/07, 12:57 AM

Anonymous Carlos from Anaheim said...

Becky Gardiner's experience leads me to believe that female sexual ambiguity, like Nick Wade and Audacious Epigone wrote about, might be real.

5/25/07, 1:13 AM

Anonymous Theresa said...

There must be an echo in here....

;-)

(Sorry 'bout that!)

5/25/07, 1:52 AM

Blogger James said...

I have a fondness for lesbians.

5/25/07, 3:24 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"It seems to remind people of phrenology which would also explain Steve why people are reticent."

I think the problem is that studies like this undermine the fundamental postulate of modern liberalism, which is that all people are born essentially the same.

Liberals like to believe that a criminal is just an ordinary person who has easy access to guns. Or who went to schools that were underfunded. Or whatever.

5/25/07, 4:11 AM

Anonymous Ian Lewis said...

I remember a few years back that the Discovery Channel had a piece on Index Finger Length and Sprinting. The doctors and researchers were talking about the very same things that this post is and they measured the Finger Lengths of different Sprinters. After they measured, the researcher then made his prediction on who would win (the Runners did not know who had the biggest and smallest differences) and he was right.

Pretty Interesting.

5/25/07, 6:11 AM

Blogger Peewee said...

When I was a kid, I was mystified by how my ring finger seemed longer when my palm faced away from me, and vice versa when it faced towards me. Today I measured them and they are exactly the same length. According to the only official IQ test I've ever taken, my math IQ is more than double my verbal IQ.

5/25/07, 8:26 AM

Anonymous tommy said...

I'm also curious about handedness among people here at Steve's blog. I'm kind of strange in this regard. I prefer my right hand for writing, but I can write almost as well (just a bit slower) with my left. As a child, I alternated between my left and right hands when writing until a teacher forced me to pick one hand. I've always used my right when using a fork or spoon. I prefer to use my left hand for most activities that involve projection. I punch left-handed. I throw balls left-handed. When I shoot a rifle, I shoot as a lefty, but when I shoot a pistol, I shoot as a right-hander. Go figure.

I have two brothers. One is a right-hander and one is a left-hander. Interestingly, my left-handed brother and I both had medical complications early on. He was nearly miscarried and I had a serious heart murmur as an infant. I've heard that such problems are more common among left-handers.

5/25/07, 9:21 AM

Anonymous jiminykrikit said...

Stephen Jay Gould gets 75 hits on the Guardian site. Chris Brand gets 3 (three). He's abused in one of them, so here's another:

The Edinburgh Buffoon, Chris Brand, recently revived the ancient smear that this [the black-white IQ gap] must be due to genes and is hence unalterable. Substitute 'blood pressure' for 'intelligence' and his error is obvious.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,191890,00.html

5/25/07, 11:12 AM

Blogger TabooTruth said...

Ring finger like a millimeter longer, barely noticeable. Did 10 points less on verbal than math, so pretty much equal between both sections.

They actually did fantastic documentary on this on PBS (!) a few months ago. What he did was compare how males and females did on visuospatial tasks-using a crane to put something in a garbage can.

The males overwhelmingly dominated the women, even though no one had ever used a crane before. However, there was one woman who was able to do it. Her relative index finger length was substantially shorter than those of the other women in the study. She also said that she usually hung out with boys as a kid.

Also, the guy that ran the study got about 10 racers together than he never saw before. Based SOLELY on relative finger length, he was able to predict who would win the race and the place of everyone after him.

Biology matters. Do we even have free will?

What happened to the IQ gap discussions?

If you read the book "Why men don't listen and women can't read maps," they extrapolate this issue to all aspects of male female interaction. This topic is pretty fascinating.

5/25/07, 11:16 AM

Blogger Svigor said...

Cool post. I've never once heard about this finger length thing.

My index fingers are significantly shorter than my ring fingers (and my left ring finger is noticeably longer than my right). I scored roughly 100 points higher on the verbal than the math.

I'm a naturally gifted artist, and I've often wondered if that comes from the verbal side or the math side, or any side at all.

Tommy, I have thin wrists, though I wouldn't say unusually so; I can roll my tongue, if that means folding it along x or z axis - can't do that weird undulating thing; my hands naturally roll up about halfway - I'd need to go a good bit further to grab a broom.

Now, who can wiggle his scalp, his ears, etc?

5/25/07, 11:32 AM

Anonymous tommy said...

jiminykrikit,

Stephen Jay Gould gets 75 hits on the Guardian site. Chris Brand gets 3 (three). He's abused in one of them, so here's another:

That is absolutely pathetic. Brand has made some real contribution to psychometrics. Gould's only contribution to the IQ debate was to muddy the waters with fallacious arguments.

Svigor,

Tommy, I have thin wrists, though I wouldn't say unusually so;

I have the wrists of an Asian Indian. I would never make much of a bowler.

Now, who can wiggle his scalp, his ears, etc?

Not me, but I've heard wiggling ears often requires some practice. (Is this true?) I know that rolling your tongue is completely genetic. I can roll mine into a closed cylinder.

5/25/07, 12:00 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...


The Edinburgh Buffoon, Chris Brand, recently revived the ancient smear that this [the black-white IQ gap] must be due to genes and is hence unalterable. Substitute 'blood pressure' for 'intelligence' and his error is obvious.


The amusing thing is that hypertension is higher in blacks than whites, I believe, as are a number of other problems.

These, of course, might be partially mediated by environmental effects, but they are clearly genetic in origin.

5/25/07, 1:32 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

James:

I have a fondness for lesbians.

So do I. I'm a heterosexual man, and I find that we have one thing in common with lesbians: We both hate women because they are i) insufferable, and ii) they can always go for other men.

;D


JD

5/25/07, 2:53 PM

Anonymous jiminykrikit said...

The one anomaly is that straight men are more likely to engage in gardening, which I would guess stems from gays being more likely to live in apartments without gardens.

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who then was the gentleman?"

This rhyme is one of the oldest known English Rhymes and can be dated to the English Peasant Revolt of 1381.

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/a115-when-adam-delved.htm

Gardening may be a substitute for farming.

5/25/07, 3:03 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Since somebody was interested, I'm a male reader, and my ring finger is longer than my index finger by about 5 mm. My verbal SAT score was indeed higher than my math score.

No, I'm not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

c23

5/25/07, 3:14 PM

Anonymous jiminykrikit said...

P.S. In response to your post at the Inductivist:

I'm wondering if lack of gardening is just driven by gays tending to be apartment dwellers.

What if gays tending to be apartment dwellers is driven (in part) by lack of interest in gardening? People tend to choose homes that allow them to express themselves in ways they like. Maybe if heterosexual men didn't have to consult their women's wishes, the mismatch would be even higher.

5/25/07, 3:24 PM

Blogger Steve Sailer said...

A commenter on Inductivist likely solved the "gardening" conundrum by pointing out that lawn care is probably included under gardening, and lawn care is a straight guy obsession.

5/25/07, 4:28 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

strong factors suggesting a non-wifey male is gay are (1) bright eyes and (2) jowly jowls. The jowls presumably have a feminine hormone component. The eyes seem more brilliant than female eyes.
I will try to absorb finger length into the model.

5/25/07, 5:01 PM

Anonymous James Kabala said...

My ring fingers are longer, especially on the left hand. I am male, but my verbal score was higher than my math.
I understand the urge to deride a probably humorless and annoying feminist like Gardiner, but I would be very surprised if the claim women with longer ring fingers are almost always lesbians and/or that lesbians almost always have longer ring fingers turned out to be true. Why isn't Laura, Gardiner's friend who is lesbian but has a long index finger, as good a counter-example to the claim as Gardiner is an example in its favor? Both are anecdotes; I want data.

5/25/07, 5:44 PM

Anonymous James Kabala said...

I read too quickly at first; Breedlove did provide the desired data, but still, I would want a more representative sample than "women attending a street fair in San Francisco," probably a heavily lesbian group to begin with.

5/25/07, 5:47 PM

Blogger Steve Sailer said...

"bright eyes"

Yes, in John Kennedy Toole's "Confederacy of Dunces," "glittering eyes" are a characteristic of the gay house party that Ignatius J. Reilly tries (unsuccessfully) to organize into a political movement.

5/25/07, 5:50 PM

Anonymous Hugh Ristik said...

While we are trading phenotypes...

Male. Ring finger longer. SAT-M: 660; SAT-V: 720.

However, I probably have higher spatial skills than is reflected on the SAT-M. When I was 14, I taught myself 3-D graphics programming which involved teaching myself a bunch of linear algebra and trig, and tons of mental rotation to get the math for the camera and viewing system right. Since about age 13, I've also been able to paint portraits at professional level. I used to have terrible problems writing essays for school, because it would take ages for me to put thoughts into words. My SAT scores seem backwards to me, but I got the same result both times I took it.

Oh, and my mother is bisexual/lesbian. That could have something to do with my visuospatial abilities.

Thin wrists? Check. Rolling my tongue? Check. Hands that curl up when at rest palm up? Check, but not enough to hold a broom, unless it's a very thick broom (I didn't know there are people who don't have this tendency). I am right-handed.

I also have a strange tendency to go after lesbian or bisexual women. This is not intentional. It just turns out the a large minority of women I have been interested in have not been straight.

5/26/07, 3:29 AM

Anonymous Dave said...

I think I am going to stop looking at my fingers for a moment and fire off an e-mail to my Senators about the immigration bill Senator Boehner is honest enough to call a "piece of shit".

5/26/07, 7:57 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I know that my mother's index fingers are much shorter than her ring fingers. She has a masters degree in Math. However, she's temperementally (and to a limited extent politically) conservative- and preferred to home-maker. So dont know how much it advances the stereotypes.

5/27/07, 11:59 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My wrists are average, my ring finger is longer than my index finger by a mm or three, I scored moderately higher on verbal than math on my SAT, but I generally do well with spacial visualization, but I'm woefully uncoordinated, so sports are mostly out. Right handed, heterosexual, according to Steve's racial categorizations Scots-Irish, English, German, with a few Cherokee grandmothers.

I cannot do any tricks with my tongue but had many cousins (mostly female) who could do either the x or y axis tongue things plus the "undulating" or whatever.

I think most of the straight-vs-gay comparisons are secondary, mostly an artifact of urban vs. rural culture with gays being overrepresented in things like classical music and art galleries due to more urban numbers.

I like rock, country, hip-hop, classical and jazz, and am an active listener to all and go to classical concerts on a regular basis. Since I live in NYC I can do this more easily than almost anyone else in the country, so I am sure I skew the numbers.

For some fun anecdotal evidence, left handed people I have known seemed to have more health problem and were generally more "unique" in one way or another.

My sister has the dubious talent of being able to write longhand and cursive backwards and forwards with either hand, and mirror writing with both hands at the same time - truly a weird "gift".

I like isteve because of all these fun genetic speculations.

5/29/07, 11:39 PM

Blogger Jedster said...

You guys do understand that the SAT scores in question are the British standardised aptitude tests given to 6 and 7 year old kids, right? Not our college entrance exam? The study was based on 75 young kids (all of whom obviously are pre-puberty and haven't had their growth spurt, though i assume that finger length ratios couldn't change as you get older, unless they do).

5/30/07, 3:13 AM

Blogger Kalee said...

Okay I have been thinking about my hands and fingers since I read about the correlation of index and ring finger to SAT scores.

What if both hands are opposite. My right hand has a slightly shorter index finger. My left hand has a longer index finger.

I am just courious if this has any thing to do with anything.....

Contemplating the navel
Kalee

5/31/07, 10:16 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

people with short right index fingers date men. and people with short left index fingers date women.

1/28/08, 4:58 PM

Blogger ara133photography said...

interesting read. I'm a girl; my ring and index fingers are the same length. My SAT scores were MUCH higher in verbal than math :) my career type test from middle school said I should be a mechanic (I think because I could follow the patterns of gears); I'm INFP in myers-briggs.

11/25/09, 8:58 AM

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