All Things Bubba

My, what long fingers you have...

Came across this interesting article today. It's about how the length of your ring finger vs. your index finger correlates with talent such as music ability. Sounds bizarre, but apparently, exposure to testosterone early in utero affects finger length...and many other traits.

Men tend to have longer ring fingers than index fingers, while women tend to have ring fingers and index fingers that are the same length. The more testosterone you were exposed to in the womb, the longer your ring finger in comparison to your index finger.

Among the traits connected to exposure to higher levels of testosterone in utero: musical ability, heterosexuality, spatial ability.

But the strongest correlation so far is for athletic ability. Not surprising. If testosterone helps full grown athletes, why not when they're in the womb?

Will baseball scouts be measuring fingers one day? Maybe.

But, Manning says, one country hopes the tool will help identify future athletes. He is working with Qatar's Aspire Sports Academy, whose vision, according to its website, "is to discover the best young sporting talent … and transform them into world-renowned champions."

Manning's goal: to prove that finger ratio at age 10 predicts athletic ability at age 18.

Manning's research seems to have been done only on men. However, I did read another article awhile back, that said longer ring fingers correlated with increased athletic ability in girls, too.

Alas, my ring finger is actually shorter than my index finger. And sure enough, I've never been in any danger of being a pro athlete.

On the flip side, long ring fingers are also associated with arthritis, independent of athletic activity. Consolation for couch potatoes, I guess. (Increased risk of arthritis combined with the wear and tear of a career in baseball...sounds like a recipe for a lot of Celebrex in your golden years.)