Research Article

2D:4D in Men Is Related to Aggressive Dominance but Not to Sociable Dominance

  1. Leander van der Meij1,2,*,
  2. Mercedes Almela2,
  3. Abraham P. Buunk1,3,
  4. Shelli Dubbs1,
  5. Alicia Salvador2

Article first published online: 24 APR 2012

DOI: 10.1002/ab.21422

Issue

Aggressive Behavior

Aggressive Behavior

Volume 38, Issue 3, pages 208–212, May / June 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

van der Meij, L., Almela, M., Buunk, A. P., Dubbs, S. and Salvador, A. (2012), 2D:4D in Men Is Related to Aggressive Dominance but Not to Sociable Dominance. Aggr. Behav., 38: 208–212. doi: 10.1002/ab.21422

Author Information

  1. 1

    Laboratory of Social Neuroscience, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

  2. 2

    Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

  3. 3

    Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

*Correspondence to: Leander van der Meij, Laboratory of Social Neuroscience, University of Valencia, Blasco Ibáñez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
E-mail: L.van.der.Meij@uv.es

  1. Contract grant sponsor: Generalitat Valenciana (Santiago Grisolía grant); Contract grant sponsor: The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 24 APR 2012
  2. Article first published online: 24 APR 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 13 DEC 2011
  4. Manuscript Received: 7 JAN 2011

Funded by

  • Generalitat Valenciana
  • The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

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Keywords:

  • 2D:4D;
  • aggressive dominance;
  • sociable dominance;
  • personality;
  • prenatal testosterone

It has been shown that a smaller ratio between the length of the second and fourth digit (2D:4D) is an indicator of the exposure to prenatal testosterone (T). This study measured the 2D:4D of men and assessed dominance as a personality trait to investigate indirectly if the exposure to prenatal T is related to a dominant personality later in life. Results showed that men had a more aggressive dominant personality when having a more masculine (lower) 2D:4D, while there was no relationship between sociable dominance and 2D:4D. Findings from this study indicate that it is important to distinguish different forms of dominance since other studies failed to find relationships between dominance and 2D:4D. Aggr. Behav. 38:208–212, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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