What Finger Length May Say About Your Mental Health
Look down at your hands, you’d be surprised what you can learn about your brain. (Photo: Ian Andrews/Alamy)
If your eyes are the windows to your soul, can your hands offer a peek into your mind? Possibly so, according to a recent study.
Scientists in Turkey found that the length of a man’s finger — particularly the ratio between his index and ring fingers — may predict his risk for schizophrenia, a chronic, debilitating mental disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior.
Between 2012 and 2013, the researchers measured the fingers of 103 men with schizophrenia and those of 100 men without the disease. They then calculated each man’s “digit ratio,” or the length of the index finger compared to that of the ring finger, for each hand.
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The results showed that men with schizophrenia had a higher digit ratio on the right hand when compared to the healthy men, meaning they were more likely to have longer right index fingers and shorter ring fingers. Yet, when it came to the left hand, men with schizophrenia had lower digit ratios than those without the disorder.
“Our results suggest that the finger-length ratio has a moderate predictive value for schizophrenia,” says study author Taner Oznur, MD, from Gulhane Military Medical Faculty in Ankara, Turkey.
What accounts for this connection? Something that happens during fetal development. Earlier studies have shown that a disturbance of male hormones, such as testosterone, in the womb can influence brain development in a way that increases the risk of schizophrenia and other mental conditions. Hormone levels also influence finger size.
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Dr. Oznur says this hormone imbalance is thought to appear in the third month of pregnancy, but it is difficult to evaluate because of ethical limitations. “Therefore, we thought that digit ratio can offer an indirect measure for this evaluation and may reflect early deformities in the brain,” he says
Finger Length and Emotional Health Traits
The Turkish study isn’t the first to look at finger length and how it relates to mental and emotional health. Another small study from the British Psychological Society associated having a shorter index finger and longer ring finger with mental toughness and an aptitude for sports in men. Sixty-seven males who participated in the study had their fingers measured and completed personality and aggression surveys.
“It appears that high prenatal levels of testosterone may result in increased mental toughness, optimism, and hence aptitude toward sport,” study author Jim Golby, PhD, head of research in sport and exercise at Teesside University in the United Kingdom said in a statement. “This provides tentative support for the conclusion that mental toughness may be partially biologically predetermined.”
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In 2012, researchers measured the digit ratio in 600 young adult volunteers. The results showed that those with smaller digit ratios reported more instances of verbal aggression than those with higher ratios. Furthermore, men in the study had lower digit ratios and higher verbal aggression than the women in the study. A 2015 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found that a smaller finger length ratio in men was associated with kindness — defined as being more agreeable and less quarrelsome — toward women.
Does Finger Length Really Predict Mental Illness?
So how much weight should you place on finger length as a potential risk factor for schizophrenia or other mental health issues? Not too much, experts say.
“Although I do think this research has potential for understanding the complexity of factors that go into the development of schizophrenia, it is just one potential factor among many and provides another clue for researchers to explore,” says Ben Michaelis, PhD, a clinical psychologist and author of Your Next Big Thing: 10 Small Steps to Get Moving and Get Happy. Dr. Michaelis was not involved with the Turkish study.
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Furthermore, the schizophrenia study and much of the other research in this area is focused solely on men, so little is known about the potential link between finger-length ratios in women and mental health. Oznur also says more research is needed to confirm — or disprove — the findings.
This article originally appeared on EverydayHealth.com: What Finger Length May Say About Your Mental Health
By Ashley Welch, Everyday Health
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