These organizational effects of PAE are critically important for the masculinization and sexually differentiated behaviors across the lifespan ( Archer, 2006). Prenatal androgen exposure, with testosterone being the most important androgen, plays an important role in the sexual differentiation of the mammalian brain, which has an enduring influence on behavior ( Lombardo et al., 2012 Auyeung et al., 2013 Hines et al., 2015 Manning et al., 2017). Since the mid-1990s, digit ratios have attracted research attention because evidence suggests it is related to prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) ( Manning et al., 1998 Lutchmaya et al., 2004) and, hence, is often used as a noninvasive retrospective marker for PAE ( Ribeiro et al., 2016). We discuss potential reasons why digit ratio may relate differently to behaviors in specific economics experiments and to self-reported general competitiveness.ĭigit ratio (2D:4D), comparing the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger, is a sexually dimorphic trait with males displaying, on average, a lower digit ratio than females ( Manning and Fink, 2008 Hönekopp and Watson, 2010). Hence, this study provides some robust empirical evidence for a negative association between R2D:4D and self-reported competitiveness. This relationship is especially strong for younger people. In contrast, we find a negative and statistically significant relationship between psychometric self-reported measures of competitiveness and right hand digit ratios (R2D:4D) in both studies. The correlation between behavior in the economic experiment and digit ratios of both hands is not statistically significant in either study. Our analyses are based on two independent data sets obtained from surveys and economic experiments with 461 visitors of a shopping mall (Study I) and 617 university students (Study II). We employ two related, but distinct, measures of competitiveness, namely behavioral measures obtained from economic experiments and psychometric self-reported measures. This study empirically examines the relationship between 2D:4D and individual competitiveness, a behavioral trait that is found to be sexually dimorphic. The ratio of index finger length to ring finger length (2D:4D) is considered to be a putative biomarker of prenatal androgen exposure (PAE), with previous research suggesting that 2D:4D is associated with human behaviors, especially sex-typical behaviors. 5Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.4RWI-Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Essen, Germany.3Institute for Development Studies, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States.2Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.1Jackstädt Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.Procher 1,2,4, Diemo Urbig 1,2 and Martin Voracek 5
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