Boys with Longer Ring Fingers are Better at Math

slashthedot writes "While it is well known that boys have longer ring fingers as compared to index fingers, now some researchers say that the longer the ring finger ratio to index finger, the better boys are at math. In girls, the shorter the ring finger to index finger ratio, the better is their verbal skills. 'The link, according to the researchers, is that testosterone levels in the womb influence both finger length and brain development.'"

Comments

Re:Flaky?

[flynt]

Because the 95% confidence level means you are allowing a 5% chance of finding a correlation where one doesn't actually exist. This is called a Type I error in hypothesis testing. If you do 20 tests, each with a 5% chance of a type I error, the expected number of times that you incorrectly reject the null hypothesis is 1.

Re:Obligatory innuendo

[UncleTogie]

The second finger is not the index finger (unless it is indicating displeasure like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) and the fourth is not the ring finger but the pinkie.
Depends if you're counting it by metacarpal bones. The numbering starts at 1, on the thumb, and the 5th is the pinky.... or that's what they teach in medical schools, anyway...