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Women who have an index finger shorter than their ring finger may be stronger, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at people's 2D:4D digit ratios – the difference in length between the index and ring finger – and how this is related to muscle strength.
A lower 2D:4D digit ratio (having a shorter index finger than ring finger) is already thought to indicate higher exposure to testosterone in the womb.
In experiments, women with a lower 2D:4D ratio tended to have higher grip strength than women with a higher 2D:4D ratio, the researchers found.
An index finger that is relatively short compared to the ring finger indicates that one has been exposed to a lot of testosterone in utero, whereas a relatively long index finger suggests a lower exposure to testosterone in the womb
The new study was conducted by researchers at the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
2D:4D ratio has already been linked to male strength, but until now its link with women's strength has been ambiguous, they claim.
'A lower 2D:4D ratio – and higher prenatal testosterone exposure – is linked to higher grip strength in adulthood,' study author Katrin Schäfer told MailOnline.
'This has been established for men for quite some time, and now we could show the
