Will Your Partner Be Faithful? Check Ring Finger Length

Reader beware: this is not an old wive’s tale, at least not yet. It’s based on research conducted at Northumbria and Oxford Universities, where scientists suspected that people might be genetically inclined to be either promiscuous or faithful. They looked for another genetic manifestation–the length of ring fingers compared to the length of index fingers- and tried to match that up with an attitude that let’s say, put less emphasis on marital fidelity than might be desirable. Science Daily reports that the researchers questioned 575 people on their thoughts and feelings towards non-committed sex and then measured photocopies of the right hands of 1,314 British men and women. The sociosexuality questionnaire showed that men were slightly more likely to stray, with 57 percent appearing to favor the unrestricted, short-term mating strategy compared to 47 percent among women. When they looked at ring finger length, they found that men were more likely (62 percent) to have long ring fingers than women (50 percent). That disparity, Science Daily reports, suggested that the finger ratio types may map on to the restricted and unrestricted sociosexual groups. Or not. Don’t call a divorce lawyer yet. More research is needed.