Why Women Should Check a Man's Finger Size

OK, we know you’re smirking. This is not about how a man’s finger size is related to the size of his junk. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that — in fact, one study says it’s true.)

No, there’s another reason women might want to check the length of a man’s ring finger: It may be an indication of how nice he’ll be toward the opposite sex.

A new Canadian study says it has to do with the size ratio of a man’s index and ring fingers, determined by dividing the index finger’s length by the ring finger’s. Basically, the shorter a man’s index finger is compared with his ring finger, the more likely he is to be nice to women. Guys whose index and ring fingers are close in length or who have short ring fingers — yeah, you might want to avoid them. They’re more likely to be an argumentative pain.

Evidently it has to do with the hormones — chiefly testosterone — these men were exposed to in their mother’s wombs, according to the McGill University study, which was published in the March issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences. The smaller the ratio, the more male hormones.

Previous studies have found an association between finger-length ratio and male hormonal level, too.

In the McGill study, lead author Debbie Moskowitz, a professor of psychology, said men with smaller ratios were more likely to “listen attentively, smile and laugh,” and “compromise or compliment” a woman. Additionally, they were less quarrelsome with women than with men. Men with larger ratios were equally quarrelsome with both, she said in a  statement. These results might also explain why these nicer men tend to have more children — “they have more harmonious relationships with women.”

The findings are based on 155 participants, both men and women. Researchers measured their fingers and the participants then reported every social interaction they had lasting more than five minutes over the next 20 days. Based on these reports, researchers classified the behaviors as either agreeable or quarrelsome. Men with a lower ratio between the finger lengths had about a third more agreeable interactions with women and a third fewer quarrelsome ones.

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Interestingly, it didn’t matter whether the woman was a friend, work colleague or romantic partner — the finger-ratio rule held. For women, however, finger size provided no prediction of behavior.

While this study showed men with longer ring fingers getting along better with women, research last month from Oxford University suggests those men may get along a little too well with women: In that study, men, and to some extent women, with elongated fourth fingers were more likely to be promiscuous.

Photo: Nullplus/iStock

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