Digit Ratios, Finger Length, and Basic Musical Abilities

Authors

  • Martin Voracek Department of Basic Psychological Research, School of Psychology, at the University of Vienna
  • Jakob Pietschnig Department of Basic Psychological Research, School of Psychology, at the University of Vienna

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/pb-49-1-1

Abstract

Among elite orchestra musicians (predominantly men), a lower (masculinised) second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), a putative marker of prenatal testosterone levels, has been shown to be associated with higher musical-ability rankings (Sluming & Manning, 2000). Seeking to extend this evidence, this study examined associations of digit ratios (2D:4D and other) and absolute finger length (a putative marker of pubertal-adolescent testosterone levels) with basic musical abilities (Seashore battery) in a sample of 124 adult non-musicians. Among women better pitch discrimination corresponded to lower (masculinised) digit ratios and longer (masculinised) fingers, whilst among men directionally opposite and thus not theory compliant correlations of rhythm and time discrimination with finger-length measures emerged. Similarly, although men exceeded women on most of the Seashore tasks, these sex differences were negligible, with the exception of timbre discrimination. On the whole, significant associations between the study variables were sparse and yielded little support for the assumption that prenatal or pubertal-adolescent androgen effects may partly influence within-sex individual variation in basic musical abilities among adult non-musicians.

Downloads

Published

2009-01-01

Issue

Vol. 49 No. 1 (2009)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2009 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms. If a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s):

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.

Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).