Risk Preferences and Prenatal Exposure to Sex Hormones for Ladinos

Risk preferences drive much of human decision making including investment, career and health choices and many more. Thus, understanding the determinants of risk preferences refines our understanding of choice in a broad array of environments. We assess the relationship between risk preferences, prenatal exposure to sex hormones and gender for a sample of Ladinos, which is an ethnic group comprising 62.86% of the population of Guatemala. Prenatal exposure to sex hormones has organizational effects on brain development, and has been shown to partially explain risk preferences for Caucasians. We measure prenatal exposure to sex hormones using the ratio of the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger (2D:4D), which is negatively (positively) correlated with prenatal exposure to testosterone (estrogen). We find that Ladino males are less risk averse than Ladino females, and that Ladino males have lower 2D:4D ratios than Ladino females on both hands. We find that the 2D:4D ratio does not explain risk preferences for Ladinos. This is true for both genders, and both hands. Our results highlight the importance of exploring the behavioral significance of 2D:4D in non-Caucasian racial groups.风险偏好主导了人类绝大多数决策行为，涵盖投资、职业选择与健康决策等诸多领域。因此，厘清风险偏好的决定因素，有助于深化我们对各类情境下决策行为的理解。 本研究针对占危地马拉总人口62.86%的拉迪诺人（Ladinos）样本，分析了风险偏好、产前性激素暴露与性别三者间的关联。产前性激素暴露会对大脑发育产生组织性影响，且已有研究证实其可部分解释高加索人群的风险偏好差异。 本研究通过食指与无名指长度比值（2D:4D）来衡量产前性激素暴露水平，该比值与产前睾酮暴露水平呈负相关，与雌激素暴露水平呈正相关。研究结果显示，拉迪诺男性比拉迪诺女性的风险规避程度更低，且双手的2D:4D比值均显著低于女性。但本研究未发现2D:4D比值可解释拉迪诺人群的风险偏好差异，这一结论在两性双手样本中均成立。 本研究结果凸显了在非高加索种族群体中探究2D:4D行为学意义的重要性。