Women who have long index fingers on their left hands are more likely to cheat, a study has found.
Scientists from Oxford University claim that a longer index finger and shorter ring finger tend to be more attractive to men, and therefore are more likely to dabble in extramarital activities.
Eiluned Pearce measured the fingers of 275 female volunteers and also sampled their DNA, before getting them to complete psychological tests about their relationships.
She found that “women with higher (more feminine) left-hand digit ratios are more impulsive and rate their romantic relationships less favourably” -which she said was “intriguing, because the opposite might be expected”.
The study reports that the findings are in contrast to previously held beliefs that women with shorter ring fingers were actually more womanly.
Scientists previously believed that they’d been exposed to higher levels of female cex hormones in the womb and therefore were “more feminised” and were more likely to be satisfied with romantic relationships.
Being exposed to more oestrogen in the womb leads to women’s index fingers growing longer than their ring fingers, while more testosterone has a “masculinising effect”, resulting in longer ring fingers.
Men with longer ring fingers than index fingers have been found to be better sportsmen.
Eiluned went on to say that women with higher index to ring finger ratios are like to be “more feminized” and more attractive to men.
And because they somehow know that they could have their pick of partners, “this might be associated with dissatisfaction with current partners”, which could lead to “opportunistic mating” and “impulsive” mating with men who are not their official partner.
“If females with more feminised morphology [body shape] have higher ‘mate value’, this might be associated with dissatisfaction with current partners, leading to impulsive extra-pair matings and seeking alternative mates,” the study concludes.