If you’re a guy and your Tinder profile includes a mix of shirtless pictures of yourself, pictures of you with puppies, and that one picture of you bungee-jumping off the Macau tower in China, you’re screwing it all up. That’s because, according to a new study, if you’re really trying to land the girl of your dreams, you don’t want to show her your abs—you want to show her that your ring finger is longer than your index finger.
Researchers from Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland, who examined the hands of 50 young men in long-term relationships then took the vital statistics of their partners found that men with long ring fingers are four times more likely to end up with a partner with the classically sought-after combination of a slim waist and prominent chest.
According to the study, the extra millimeters on the ring finger are caused by a burst of testosterone while a baby is still in the womb. In later life, that seems to translate into a manliness that curvy women apparently find irresistible.
The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. states: “Our results suggest men’s prenatal environment has an impact on the likelihood of being in a relationship with a more attractive and presumably more fertile woman.”
Human behavior expert Berenika Kuna, the study’s lead author, added, “Eye-tracking studies have shown that, during evaluation of female body attractiveness, men focus mainly on the waist and breast areas, which deliver honest signals about a woman’s reproductive status.”
So if you’re a guy whose ring finger stretches beyond your index finger, push back those cuticles and take a few finger selfies. Felfies? And watch as the number of your matches goes through the roof.
A few other things we learned about our bodies today:
Teens who help strangers have more confidence.
Woof woof! If you’re a dog owner, you’re probably going to live longer.
So typical: According to a new study, a third of men who plan to propose to their partners will do so on Christmas day.
Men are generally happier than women, according to new research from Britain. But only until the age of 85. Sorry, ladies.
And in today’s “no duh” news, women get less credit than men in the workplace.
Andrew Fiouzi
Andrew Fiouzi is a staff writer at MEL.
