The digit ratio (2D:4D) and economic preferences: no robust associations in a sample of 330 women

Elle Parslow, Eva Ranehill, Niklas Zethraeus, Liselott Blomberg, Bo von Schoultz, Angelica Lindén Hirschberg, Magnus Johannesson and Anna Dreber

No 750, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Many studies report on the association between 2D:4D, a putative marker for prenatal testosterone exposure, and economic preferences. However, most of these studies have limited sample sizes and test multiple hypotheses (without preregistration). In this study we mainly replicate the common specifications found in the literature for the association between the 2D:4D ratio and risk taking, the willingness to compete, and dictator game giving separately. In a sample of 330 women we find no robust associations between any of these economic preferences and 2D:4D. We find no evidence of an effect for sixteen of the eighteen total regressions we run. The two regression specifications which are significant have not previously been reported and the associations are not in the expected direction, and therefore they are unlikely to represent a real effect.

Keywords: economic preferences; experiment; testosterone (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/2077/59073 Full text (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: The digit ratio (2D:4D) and economic preferences: no robust associations in a sample of 330 women (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0750

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jessica Oscarsson ().