Lady Gaga was right all along: You were born this way.
In what will surely prompt schoolyard kids around the globe to start comparing their hands in between rounds of monkey bars, a new review out of a university in Canada confirms that finger length may be an indication of a person’s sexual orientation.
The ratio of lengths between index and ring fingers is considered to be a sign of androgen exposure in the womb, potentially pointing toward a person’s sexuality later in life.
While the last several decades have seen dozens of studies on this exact subject, findings have often conflicted, and none have recognized bisexuality or sexual fluidity as possibilities.
This most recent work, from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, went back over 51 older studies to try to get some answers — and assert that bisexual people also exist and generally also have hands.
The ratio used in all these studies is known as 2D:4D, or the second digit (index finger) compared to the fourth digit (ring finger). In “typical” males, the 2D:4D ratio tends to be lower, meaning an index finger that’s shorter than the ring finger.
An often-cited 2010 analysis found that women with lower 2D:4D, or more male-typical finger length, was an indicator of homosexuality. But it claimed there was no such connection for men, and it didn’t consider the possibility of bisexuality at all.
Based on these most recent results, combining data from over 200,000 individuals, heterosexual males had lower 2D:4D on both right and left hands than heterosexual females, which was expected.
But it also found that both homosexual and bisexual males had a higher, more female-typical 2D:4D on both hands, whereas exclusively heterosexual women had a higher 2D:4D on both hands compared to exclusively homosexual women.
As for bisexuals across the board, the researchers observed finger-length ratios that were more similar to those of heterosexual men and women respectively — but when it comes to predictors of bisexuality, there’s more to explore.
“Bisexual women are more similar to heterosexual women in digit ratios, but there may be further nuance,” the authors wrote.
“Those falling in the middle of the scale or between heterosexual and bisexual on the scale are more like heterosexual women, while those falling between bisexual and homosexual are more similar to lesbians in digit ratios.”
Ultimately, these finger discrepancies are likely influenced by prenatal testosterone exposure, which may “masculinize” the hands and increase the probability of homosexuality in women.
“Conversely,” the authors wrote, “relatively lower levels of androgen signaling and/or higher levels of estrogen signaling may feminize digit ratios and increase androphilia [sexual attraction to men] in males.”
Similar finger tests have been used to explain all sorts of social differences (like relative athleticism) and likelihoods of certain disorders (like addiction and other mental health conditions).
While not all of it may ring true, studying the hands may help put a finger on more genetic predispositions than we once thought.
