Alonso, J., R. Di Paolo, G. Ponti and M. Sartarelli
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience – 12:22 (2018): DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00022
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Keywords: 2D:4D, cognitive reflection, gender, risk, social preferences


Abstract: We study how the ratio between the length of the second and fourth digit (2D:4D) correlates with choices in social and risk preferences elicitation tasks by building a large dataset from five experimental projects with more than 800 subjects. Our results confirm the recent literature that downplays the link between 2D:4D and many domains of economic interest, such as social and risk preferences. As for the former, we find that social preferences are significantly lower when 2D:4D is above the median value only for subjects with low cognitive ability. As for the latter, we find that a high 2D:4D is not correlated with the frequency of subjects’ risky choices.