March 4, 2005
READING BETWEEN THE LINES:
Finger length 'key to aggression' (BBC, 3/04/05)
The length of a man's fingers can reveal how physically aggressive he is, Canadian scientists have said.
This makes perfect sense in Darwinian terms because aggression is associated with flipping the bird and aggressive individuals will select for mates especially adept at doing so. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 4, 2005 5:10 PM
Wouldn't larger men have longer fingers? And wouldn't larger men be more likely to be victorious when "physically aggressive"?
Posted by: Brandon at March 4, 2005 6:46 PMThat's a totally different Just-So story.
Posted by: oj at March 4, 2005 6:56 PM"Dr Hurd is now looking at male hockey players to see whether there is any correlation between finger lengths and each player's penalty record for contact and fouling during matches."
Why not? They've got nothing better to do, eh?
Posted by: John Resnick at March 4, 2005 7:01 PMIndex finger length roughly correlates with something else, therefore ...
Posted by: ghostcat at March 4, 2005 7:29 PM"flipping the bird" has different connotations in different parts of the world. in england....
sounds like this guy just wants an excuse to hang around the locker room with a ruler
Posted by: cjm at March 4, 2005 7:46 PMIt could be that bigger men are, on average, more aggressive. Such men would tend to have bigger hands as well and therefore longer fingers. Not as interesting now, is it?
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at March 5, 2005 12:09 AMStill Kiplingesque, as personality traits guide evolution.
Posted by: oj at March 5, 2005 8:05 AMThere's a theory that lesbianism is correlated with index finger length. Got a Just So story for that?
Posted by: David Cohen at March 5, 2005 8:55 AMWhat is this, T-Ball?
Posted by: oj at March 5, 2005 9:04 AMI never noticed that concert pianists, particularly those who specialize in Chopin, Rachmaninoff or Liszt, had particularly violent personal lives. As for studying hockey players, where do you find your non-violent control group?
What do long fingers mean? Long gloves.
Posted by: Bart at March 5, 2005 10:35 AM"It could be that bigger men are, on average, more aggressive."
FWIW, from my personal observations so far I have found the opposite to be more the case.
Posted by: creeper at March 6, 2005 3:29 AMcreeper has it right.
Short-man syndrome is a well-known problem in pubs and clubs across the land. Never accidentally spill a short man's pint. They take it personally.
Posted by: Brit at March 7, 2005 8:37 AM