Announcement of a Finger-Length-Ratio/Video-Game-Addiction Connection

Evidence of one sort or another piles deep, deep, deep for or against there being significance to the length of a person’s second finger as compared with the length of that person’s fourth finger. Now implicated in the ever-more-encompassing story: video game addiction. Here’s a new (and perhaps the only) study on this particular vexing question:

“Low 2D:4D Values Are Associated with Video Game Addiction,” Johannes Kornhuber [pictured here, fingers not shown], Eva-Maria Zenses, Bernd Lenz, Christina Stoessel, Polyxeni Bouna-Pyrrou, Florian Rehbein, Sören Kliem, Thomas Mößle, PLoS One. 2013 Nov 13;8(11):e79539. The authors, at Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and at Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, Hanover, German, explain:.

“Here, we quantified video gaming behavior in young males. We found lower mean 2D:4D [second digit to fourth digit ratio] values in subjects who were classified… as having at-risk/addicted behavior (n = 27) compared with individuals with unproblematic video gaming behavior (n = 27). Thus… low 2D:4D values, are associated with problematic video gaming behavior. These results may be used to improve the diagnosis, prediction, and prevention of video game addiction.”

BONUS: Baroness Susan Greenfield warns the world about video game addiction.

BONUS: Ben Goldacre warns the world about Baroness Susan Greenfield.

BONUS: Finger celebrities.