Fickle Finger of Fate Points Out Math Potential

You may have heard something like this before…but you might be able to predict your students SAT performance just by looking at their hands….and it doesn’t have anything to do with those hands busy texting rather than flipping through the pages of a book! 

Teenagers whose ring finger is longer than their index finger are likely to score higher on the math section of the SAT, while those whose index finger is longer will do better on the reading and writing sections.  True…but who figured THAT out?   LiveScience.com reports that researchers from the University of Bath in Great Britain know that finger length is a reflection of areas of the brain that are more highly developed. This is determined by the amount of the hormones testosterone and estrogen a fetus is exposed to in the womb. 

So instead of “you are what you eat” as the defining slogan, perhaps “you are what your mother ate” is more accurate.  Testosterone is thought to promote spatial and mathematical skills and that makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen is the opposite. It promotes verbal ability and tends to lengthen the index finger in relation to the ring finger.  Fascinating stuff really…of course you could use that stubby finger to actually do homework and close the natural advantage provided in the womb!