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The 2D:4D ratio does not always correlate with economic behavior: A field experiment with African-Americans

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  • Candelo, Natalia
  • Eckel, Catherine

Abstract

Several studies present evidence of correlations between prenatal testosterone exposure measured with the 2D:4D ratio and behaviors such as pro-social behavior, risk and patient attitudes, and self-employment. Individuals exposed prenatally to higher levels of testosterone have lower levels of risk aversion, higher levels of patience and invest more in others, and in themselves, therefore have higher individual financial wellbeing. We test these hypotheses with a sample of 115 African-Americans who live in a low-income urban area in the U.S. The 2D:4D ratio in our sample of males and females does not have a consistent and robust correlation with risk, patient attitudes, pro-social behavior and self-employment in contrast to previous studies.

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  • Candelo, Natalia & Eckel, Catherine, 2018. "The 2D:4D ratio does not always correlate with economic behavior: A field experiment with African-Americans," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 172-181.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:30:y:2018:i:c:p:172-181
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.07.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Natalia Candelo & Angela C. M. Oliveira & Catherine Eckel, 2023. "Trust among the poor: African Americans trust their neighbors, but are less trusting of public officials," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 427-452, September.
    2. Finley, Brian & Kalwij, Adriaan & Kapteyn, Arie, 2022. "Born to be wild: Second-to-fourth digit length ratio and risk preferences," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    3. da Silva, Eduardo Borges & Silva, Thiago Christiano & Constantino, Michel & Amancio, Diego Raphael & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2020. "Overconfidence and the 2D:4D ratio," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risk; Time preferences; Patience; Pro-social behavior; Self-employment; 2D:4D ratio; Prenatal testosterone exposure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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