Prenatal sex-hormone exposure, aggression and dominance in men and women

Abstract

Evolutionary psychologists and biologists have shown that some morphological features are related to surprising behavioral differences. One example of this is the length of the index finger as compared with the ring finger, which is considered to be a morphological index of prenatal exposure to testosterone in animals and humans. We have compared here this finger-length ratio, aggression and dominance in men and women, and results show that men have a lower ratio than women, as well as higher physical and verbal aggression, and higher aggressive and sociable dominance. Moreover, this finger-length ratio negatively correlates with physical aggression in men but not in women.