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Are our fingers saying something?

CarolCarol
edited May 2007 in - Writing Tales

Comments

  • CarolCarol
    Just started looking at the BBC webpages and noticed this item that has come out of a  study at the University of Bath. The length of our ring finger could suggest someone is better at literacy than maths- hormones again!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6680737.stm
  • *SA**SA*
    hahaha! my ring finger is shorter than my index finger! so i was meant to be a writer from conception!!
  • Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
    Scientific research? sounds very like a horoscope with an extra portion of mumbo jumbo. Do they do bumps on the head s well I wonder
  • SilentTonySilentTony
    I saw some rowdy school kids hanging out of the window of a bus yesterday. I think they were trying to say something with their fingers.
  • CarolCarol
    Well my ring finger is only a cm shorter than my index finger- on both hands- and I'm not very good at maths- unless it's simple basic everyday type stuff!
    So that theory doesn't work then.
  • StirlingStirling
    Load of rubbish.

    So I'm good at maths, I always thought I was rubbish!.

    Someone wants to tell admissions at Stirling University, because I thought that I had spent four years with the OU studying literature, and achieved publication a few times.

    Still need the calculator when cashing up at work though.
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Sorry, I may not ever make it as a writer but I'm closer to walking on the moon than being a mathematician. Codswallop, I say! :-D
  • Tessa TangentTessa Tangent
    Interesting but, yes, possible bunkum.

    Mine are contrary: ring finger is shorter on the right hand and longer on the left.  So maybe that's why I'm somewhere in the middle.  Can still do arithmetic in my head but nothing too complex.  That must surely be rote learning, not my fingers!

    And have been published.  Also started life as a left-hander and was "corrected" (ha) into right-handedness.
  • AnyankaAnyanka
    The article refers only to the relative finger-lengths of seven-year-olds.  I have no idea if our finger-relations change as we get older. Anyway, I used to be good at literacy AND maths, but all Thumbs on sports equipment.
  • Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
    Just think if we had an extra digit on each hand we would have probably stuck to the duodecimal system
  • CarolCarol
    The nearest I can get is my three boys- okay they're four years older than the children used, but I can safely say it is probably nothing to do with being better at maths or literacy.
    The pair who are good at English, like me have the same length on both hands, and the single one of the trio has one hand with same length fingers, while his right hand his ring finger is shorter (but he does prefer Maths!)
    So I think they must have just got a skewed group.
  • ButterflyButterfly
    Okay, so what happens when they are the same. Both mine are the same length. I'm hopeless at maths, so does that mean I should be hopeless at literacy too!!
  • JennyJenny
    Around 1998 Penn State University carried out research on hair. This is one of the conclusions they reached:

    If your hair grows very quickly, it's almost 100% certain that one of your distant ancestors came from the Peli Umani tribe which once lived on the lower slopes of Mount Etna.

    True or False?
  • CarolCarol
    Got to be false. Age has something to do with it, plus nutrition.
  • Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
    it doesn't take a lot of family history research before you realise it is difficult to find anyone you are not related to. You had 2 parents, 4 grand parents,  8 great grandparents, 16 Gt Gt Grandparents and so on. By the time you reach the start of the Tudor reign you must have had more forebears than there were people on the earth
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    There was something like this on television a while back - relating to (probably male)athletes' fingers - something to do with the rush of homones in the womb, and the competitiveness to win.
  • CarolCarol
    Apparently it relates to testosterone and oestrogen quantities present in the womb.
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    edited July 2008
    Just bringing this to the top for anyone who's been reading The Making of Me programme discussion.
  • LizLiz
    Since nearly all women have a ring finger shorter than their index finger, unless they were bathed in a slightly more than normal testosterone in the womb, and correspondingly, men usually have longer ring fingers than index, then this is simply rubbish.

    However, I have my fingers the other way round and so does my husband -which fits, as I come out as male in psychmetric tests, and my husband come up as more female.
  • JediyaJediya
    Mine ring finger and index fingers are the same length...unless I squint or tilt my hands *gets distracted* .....anyway.... I'm good at maths and literacy so *shrugs*
  • NenaNena
    Errrrrrrrrr...dare I admit, after LizB's bit about testosterone, that my ring finger is also just slightly longer than my index finger? Can't do maths to save my life though.
  • CarolCarol
    edited July 2008
    my ring and index fingers are just about the same length.
  • LizLiz
    Mine's much longer, and I'm HOPELESS at maths Nena... and good at literacy -clearly... and despite the fact I've obviously been bathed in testosterone at some point, I've never been mistaken for a man.
  • LizLiz
    To my knowledge...
  • CarolCarol
    I have been surrounded by males all my life- four older brothers, an office dominated by men, and now my own family five males.
    All I can say is that I usually don't have problems with creating believable male characters. :)
  • SoobdooSoobdoo
    Oh dear is there no hope for me then? My ring finger is longer than my index finger on both sides. :)
  • LizLiz
    Me too Soobdoo. Don't worry. It just means you an wear more rings than the average female.
  • JennyJenny
    Mine look to be the same length. What does that mean?!!
  • LizLiz
    You have very square hands?
  • JennyJenny
    :D
    I could have phrased that better! They're not ALL the same length!!!!!
  • LizLiz
    ! I'm so glad !
  • JennyJenny
    edited July 2008
    I wonder why our fingers are different lengths. Aha - I know - it's so we can use the QWERTY keyboard and our thumbs are shorter so they can get to the space bar easily!
  • salwritesalwrite
    This was on the John Barrowman programme last night, it also indicates if you are gay or not
  • JennyJenny
    What - having fingers all the same length? :D
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    The Making of Me programme (discussion/thread)

    This programme about sexuality - nature versus nurture - (and John Barrowman) was on yesterday, 24th July, BBC1, 9pm. You'll find the bit about finger lengths towards the end - it's on iPlayer at the moment.
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    John Barrowman's on Loose Women NOW!

    (6th July 2009)
  • dorothyddorothyd
    good, I escaped from the lounge in time then ...
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    But you don't have a television.

    Torchwood is on for the next five nights. Supposed to be good.
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    Or aren't you at home?
  • dorothyddorothyd
    I'm not at home. I just had to eat lunch in front of the TV watching Loosewomen, no escape, 54" HD monster. So with those daft women in my face and fighting a kitten determined to get at my lunch...
    I work full time still.
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