Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prosocial behavior in economic games: no direct correlation with generosity, bargaining, or trust-related behaviors

Prenatal exposure to sex hormones exerts organizational effects on the brain which have observable behavioral correlates in adult life. There are reasons to expect that social behaviors—fundamental for the evolutionary success of humans—might be related to biological factors such as prenatal sex hormone exposure. Nevertheless, the existing literature is inconclusive as to whether and how prenatal exposure to testosterone and estrogen, proxied by the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), may predict non-selfish behavior. Here, we investigate this question using economic experiments with real monetary stakes and analyze five different dimensions of social behavior in a comparatively large sample of Caucasian participants (n=560). For both males and females, our results show no robust association between right- or left-hand 2D:4D and generosity, bargaining, or trust-related behaviors. Moreover, no differences in behavior were found according to sex. We conclude that there is no direct corr...

产前性激素暴露会对大脑产生组织性影响，这类影响在成年期表现出可观测的行为关联。有理由推测，作为人类进化成功基石的社会行为，或许与产前性激素暴露等生物因素存在关联。然而，现有文献对于产前睾酮与雌激素暴露（以第二与第四手指长度比（second-to-fourth digit ratio，2D:4D）为替代指标）是否及如何预测非自利行为尚无定论。本研究通过设置真实货币奖励的经济学实验探讨这一问题，并在规模相对较大的高加索人群样本（n=560）中分析社会行为的五个不同维度。结果显示，无论男性还是女性，右手或左手的2D:4D与慷慨、议价或信任相关行为之间均无稳健关联。此外，未发现不同性别间存在行为差异。我们的结论是，产前性激素暴露与非自利社会行为之间不存在直接关联...