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      Digit ratio (2D:4D) and academic success as measured by achievement in the academic degree “Habilitation”

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          Abstract

          Introduction

          Prenatal androgen exposure has important organizing effects on brain development and therefore on future behavior. Previous research has shown, that the ratio between index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) (2D:4D) could function as a marker of prenatal androgen effects, with a relatively shorter 2D indicating a higher prenatal androgen exposure. 2D:4D is associated with status-seeking and competitive behavior but also with altruism. Therefore, 2D:4D should be related to academic success.

          Methods

          We examined the 2D:4D of both hands, as well as the difference between both variables (Dr-l), of 209 university graduates (74 women) employed at the Medical Faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and we assessed the relationship of these variables with academic career performance. Career performance was measured by the number of publications as first or last author, and by achievement of an academic degree used in many European countries, the so-called “Habilitation”.

          Results

          In a within-sex analysis we found a non-monotonic association between the right hand digit ratio and the probability of having a “Habilitation” in females. Academic success, measured by the number of publications as first or last author and the probability of a "Habilitation", increases with age. In agreement with the literature, we found higher academic success in men.

          Conclusion

          We found a non-monotonic relationship between right hand 2D:4D and academic success in females. However, the significance of this relationship was weak.

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          Most cited references59

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          The "gender gap" in authorship of academic medical literature--a 35-year perspective.

          Participation of women in the medical profession has increased during the past four decades, but issues of concern persist regarding disparities between the sexes in academic medicine. Advancement is largely driven by peer-reviewed original research, so we sought to determine the representation of female physician-investigators among the authors of selected publications during the past 35 years. Original articles from six prominent medical journals--the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med), the Annals of Surgery (Ann Surg), Obstetrics & Gynecology (Obstet Gynecol), and the Journal of Pediatrics (J Pediatr)--were categorized according to the sex of both the first and the senior (last listed) author. Sex was also determined for the authors of guest editorials in NEJM and JAMA. Data were collected for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2004. The analysis was restricted to authors from U.S. institutions holding M.D. degrees. The sex was determined for 98.5 percent of the 7249 U.S. authors of original research with M.D. degrees. The proportion of first authors who were women increased from 5.9 percent in 1970 to 29.3 percent in 2004 (P<0.001), and the proportion of senior authors who were women increased from 3.7 percent to 19.3 percent (P<0.001) during the same period. The proportion of authors who were women increased most sharply in Obstet Gynecol (from 6.7 percent of first authors and 6.8 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 40.7 percent of first authors and 28.0 percent of senior authors in 2004) and J Pediatr (from 15.0 percent of first authors and 4.3 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 38.9 percent of first authors and 38.0 percent of senior authors in 2004) and remained low in Ann Surg (from 2.3 percent of first authors and 0.7 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 16.7 percent of first authors and 6.7 percent of senior authors in 2004). In 2004, 11.4 percent of the authors of guest editorials in NEJM and 18.8 percent of the authors of guest editorials in JAMA were women. Over the past four decades, the proportion of women among both first and senior physician-authors of original research in the United States has significantly increased. Nevertheless, women still compose a minority of the authors of original research and guest editorials in the journals studied. Copyright 2006 Massachusetts Medical Society.
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            2nd to 4th digit ratios, fetal testosterone and estradiol.

            The ratio of 2nd to 4th digit length (2D:4D) is sexually dimorphic (mean 2D:4D is lower in males than females) and is thought to be fixed early in development. 2D:4D has been reported to be related to fetal growth, hand preference, autism, Asperger's syndrome, sperm counts, family size, age at myocardial infarction in men and breast cancer in women. There is indirect evidence that 2D:4D is established in utero and is negatively related to prenatal testosterone and positively with prenatal estradiol. However, there are no studies which show direct relationships between fetal testosterone (FT), fetal estradiol (FE) and 2D:4D. To investigate the relationships between 2D:4D ratios and FT and FE from amniotic fluid. Cohort study. 33 children. Radioimmunoassays of FT and FE obtained from routine amniocentesis; 2D:4D ratios calculated from 2nd and 4th digit length of the right and left hands at age 2 years. A significant negative association between right 2D:4D ratio and FT/FE ratio, which was independent of sex. These preliminary findings lend support to an association between low 2D:4D and high levels of FT relative to FE, and high 2D:4D with low FT relative to FE.
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              Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children's interests.

              Common stereotypes associate high-level intellectual ability (brilliance, genius, etc.) with men more than women. These stereotypes discourage women's pursuit of many prestigious careers; that is, women are underrepresented in fields whose members cherish brilliance (such as physics and philosophy). Here we show that these stereotypes are endorsed by, and influence the interests of, children as young as 6. Specifically, 6-year-old girls are less likely than boys to believe that members of their gender are "really, really smart." Also at age 6, girls begin to avoid activities said to be for children who are "really, really smart." These findings suggest that gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early and have an immediate effect on children's interests.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Funding acquisitionRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                25 February 2019
                2019
                : 14
                : 2
                : e0212167
                Affiliations
                [001]Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
                University of Vienna, AUSTRIA
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1866-860X
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8096-3987
                Article
                PONE-D-18-00532
                10.1371/journal.pone.0212167
                6388918
                30802262
                a95d6602-2bb6-4eba-a7af-757129af1423
                © 2019 Tektas et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 6 January 2018
                : 29 January 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 7, Pages: 16
                Funding
                Funding for this study was provided by intramural grants from the University Hospital of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Mathematical and Statistical Techniques
                Statistical Methods
                Regression Analysis
                Linear Regression Analysis
                Physical Sciences
                Mathematics
                Statistics
                Statistical Methods
                Regression Analysis
                Linear Regression Analysis
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Anatomy
                Musculoskeletal System
                Body Limbs
                Arms
                Hands
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Anatomy
                Musculoskeletal System
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                Hands
                People and Places
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                Social Sciences
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                Custom metadata
                The underlying dataset cannot be made public due to concerns regarding subject anonymity, due to the number of indirect identifies in combination with biometric data that could potentially allow for individual identification. Interested researchers may request data access by contacting direktion-psych@ 123456uk-erlangen.de .

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