Abstract
Abstract The digit ratio (2D:4D) is considered a proxy for testosterone exposure in utero, and there has been a recent surge of studies testing whether 2D:4D is associated with economic preferences. Although the results are not conclusive, previous studies have reported statistically significant correlations between 2D:4D and risk taking, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity and trust. However, most previous studies have small sample sizes gathered from university students and there is also no consensus on the type of analysis (e.g., which hand to analyze or subgroup to focus on) or the preference elicitation method. We present results from a pre-registered large sample study testing if 2D:4D is associated with economic preferences. Data were collected in a representative sample of adults in the German Socioeconomic Panel-Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS), in a sample of about 3450 respondents (about 5 times larger than the previously largest study in this field). Using experimentally validated survey questions, we find no statistically significant association between 2D:4D and economic preferences in the largest study to this date on the topic.
Highlights
There is substantial variation in economic preferences between individuals
Our null results suggest that variation in 2D:4D does not explain any important variation in economic preferences between individuals
The point estimates for the five measures of economic preferences are close to zero and are precisely estimated with 99.5% confidence intervals within about a +/- 0.05 standard deviation change in economic preferences for a one standard deviation change in 2D:4D
Summary
There is substantial variation in economic preferences between individuals. Some of this variation has been linked to cultural or situational factors such as gender norms (e.g Gneezy et al, 2009) or reference points (e.g. Thaler and Johnson, 1990). Bos et al, 2010; Eisenegger et al, 2011; Sapienza et al, 2009; Zethraeus et al, 2009), with mixed results (see Dreber and Johannesson, 2019 for further discussion), others have focused on prenatal testosterone exposure in utero. Such exposure is hypothesized to impact brain development of the fetus and could potentially explain some of the individual heterogeneity in preferences (Baron-Cohen, 2002). The ratio of the length of the 2nd digit to the length of the 4th digit (2D:4D) on each hand (Manning et al, 1998) has been used as such a proxy
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