Facts and Misconceptions about 2D:4D, Social and Risk Preferences.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Alonso J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5816919 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Prenatal androgen exposure affects the brain development of the fetus which may facilitate certain behaviors and decision patterns in the later life. The ratio between the lengths of second and the fourth fingers (2D:4D) is a negative biomarker of the ratio between prenatal androgen and estrogen exposure and men typically have lower ratios than women. In line with the typical findings suggesting that women are more risk averse than men, several studies have also shown negative relationships between 2D:4D and risk taking although the evidence is not conclusive. Previous studies have also reported that both men and women believe women are more risk averse than men. In the current study, we re-test the relationship between 2D:4D and risk preferences in a German student sample and also investigate whether the 2D:4D ratio is associated with people's perceptions about others' risk preferences. Following an incentivized risk elicitation task, we asked all participants their predictions about (i) others' responses (without sex specification), (ii) men's responses, and (iii) women's responses; then measured their 2D:4D ratios. In line with the previous findings, female participants in our sample were more risk averse. While both men and women underestimated other participants' (non sex-specific) and women's risky decisions on average, their predictions about men were accurate. We also found evidence for the false consensus effect, as risky choices are positively correlated with predictions about other participants' risky choices. The 2D:4D ratio was not directly associated either with risk preferences or the predictions of other participants' choices. An unexpected finding was that women with mid-range levels of 2D:4D estimated significantly larger sex differences in participants' decisions. This finding needs further testing in future studies.
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Project description:The current study seeks confirmation for the hypothesis that 2D:4D (positively) predicts prosociality when people are more likely to rely on intuition than deliberation. We assess intuition and deliberation using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) and measure prosociality via the validated Social Value Orientation (SVO) slider measure. Although our results do not provide collective evidence for our main proposition, we observe in the data that for low (right) 2D:4D men, the more intuitive they are, the less prosocial they become, whereas for high (right) 2D:4D men the thinking style does not affect their prosociality. Importantly, we find that two alternative measures of cognitive reflection, CRT and CRT-2, differently relate to prosocial decision making such that only CRT-2 (but not the classic CRT) positively predicts prosociality. Given that previous research on the role of cognitive reflection and 2D:4D in prosocial decision making provided inconsistent results, the present study findings are highly valuable to get a better understanding in this domain of study. Furthermore, some of our findings invite further confirmatory tests, thereby opening up multiple avenues for further research.
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Project description:Drug repurposing appears to offer an attractive alternative in finding new anticancer agents. Their applicability seems to have multiple benefits, among which are the potential of immediate efficacy assessment in clinical trials and the existence of patient safety and tolerability evidence. Nevertheless, their effective application in terms of tumor-type targeting requires accurate knowledge of their exact mechanism of action. In this review, we present such a successful drug, namely Disulfiram (commercially known as Antabuse), and discuss its recently uncovered mode of anticancer action through DNA damage.
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Project description:Since the first definition of dry eye, rapid progress has been made in this field over the past decades that has guided profound changes in the definition, classification, diagnosis and management of the disease. Although dry eye is one of the most frequently encountered ocular conditions, various "old" misconceptions persist, in particular among comprehensive ophthalmologists not specialized in ocular surface diseases. These misconceptions hamper the correct diagnosis and the proper management of dry eye in the routine clinical practice. In the present review, we described the 10 most common misconceptions related to dry eye and provided an evidence-based guide for reconsidering them using the format "false myth versus medical fact". These misconceptions concern the dry eye definition and classification (#1, #2, #3), disease physiopathology (#4), diagnosis (#5), symptoms (#6, #7) and treatment (#8, #9, #10). Nowadays, dry eye is still an under-recognized and evolving disease that poses significant clinical challenges to ophthalmologists. The two major reasons behind these challenges include the heterogeneity of the conditions that fall under the umbrella term of dry eye and the common discrepancy between signs and symptoms.
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Project description:Many studies report on the association between 2D:4D, a putative marker for prenatal testosterone exposure, and economic preferences. However, most of these studies have limited sample sizes and test multiple hypotheses (without preregistration). In this study we mainly replicate the common specifications found in the literature for the association between the 2D:4D ratio and risk taking, the willingness to compete, and dictator game giving separately. In a sample of 330 women we find no robust associations between any of these economic preferences and 2D:4D. We find no evidence of a statistically significant relation for 16 of the 18 total regressions we run. The two regression specifications which are statistically significant have not previously been reported and the associations are not in the expected direction, and therefore they are unlikely to represent a real effect.
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Project description:Prohibitive voice behaviors are employees' expressions of concern about practices, incidents, or behaviors that may potentially harm the organization. In this study, we examined a potential biological correlate of prohibitive voice: prenatal exposure to testosterone. In a sample of bankers, we used 2D:4D (i.e., the ratio of the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger) as a marker for prenatal exposure to testosterone (lower 2D:4D suggests higher prenatal exposure to testosterone). We used a self-report scale to measure prohibitive voice. For low-ranked employees, lower 2D:4D was related to using less voice. No such relation was found for high-ranked employees. Conclusions should be drawn with caution, because the findings only applied to voice regarding the organization as a whole (and not to voice regarding the own team), and because of methodological limitations. However, the findings are consistent with the ideas that (a) people low in 2D:4D tend to strive to attain and maintain social status and that (b) remaining silent about perceived problems in the organization is-at least for low-ranked employees-a means to achieve this goal.
| S-EPMC5489198 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We study prudence and temperance (next to risk aversion) in social settings. Previous experimental studies have shown that these higher-order risk preferences affect the choices of individuals deciding privately on lotteries that only affect their own payoff. Yet, many risky and financially relevant decisions are made in the social settings of households or organizations. We elicit higher-order risk preferences of individuals and systematically vary how an individual's decision is made (alone or while communicating with a partner) and who is affected by the decision (only the individual or the partner as well). In doing so, we can isolate the effects of other-regarding concerns and communication on choices. Our results reveal that the majority of choices are risk averse, prudent, and temperate across social settings. We also observe that individuals are influenced significantly by the preferences of a partner when they are able to communicate and choices are payoff-relevant for both of them.
| S-EPMC5913393 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In this paper, we use the risk apportionment technique of Eeckhoudt, Rey and Schlesinger (2007) to study higher order risk preferences for others’ health as well as ex-ante and ex-post inequality preferences for social risky distributions, and their interaction. In an experiment on a sample of university students acting as impartial spectators, we observe risk aversion towards social health losses and a dislike of ex-ante inequality. In addition, evidence for ex-post inequality seeking is much weaker than evidence for ex-ante inequality aversion. Because ex-ante inequality aversion is unrelated to risk aversion, we conclude that simple forms of utilitarianism are not relevant for individual judgment of social risk over health. Last, our investigation of precautionary distribution, which would occur when one particular group in the society suffers from background health risk, shows substantial polarization of preferences. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11238-023-09928-w.
| S-EPMC10133917 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Positive social interactions are crucial for human well-being. Elevated prenatal exposure to testosterone as indicated by a low second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D:4D) relates to more aggressive/hostile behavior in men of low 2D:4D, especially in challenging situations. How much people enjoy interacting with others is determined by the personality trait sociability. Given its role in approach and avoidance behavior, sociability might also be influenced by prenatal sex hormones, but studies are inconclusive so far. Here, we investigated the association between 2D:4D and the personality trait sociability complemented by personal social capital and personal social network size, in a population-based cohort of 4998 men. Lower 2D:4D correlated significantly with higher trait sociability, bigger personal social capital, and larger personal social network size. These effects were consistent across both hands separately and their mean value. Furthermore, both factors of sociability (1) liking party and company of friends and (2) isolation intolerance, correlated significantly with the prenatal testosterone marker. The exploratory analysis revealed no link between 2D:4D and responses to the personality trait aggression items or items of anti-social-personality disorder. Our data suggest that prenatal androgen exposure organizes the brain with lasting effects on social behavior.
| S-EPMC6906175 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The second to fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio is of interest in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies on the relationship of this ratio with other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are lacking. Investigating the association between the ratio and NDDs in twins can provide insight into genetic and/or environmental factors driving the ratio. Hand images were collected in N?=?238 twins with NDDs or typical development from 70 monozygotic and 49 dizygotic pairs to examine ratios and their associations to DSM-5 defined categorical NDDs, autistic traits, zygosity, and sex. There were small associations for males between the ratios and any NDD and ADHD diagnoses. Males had lower ratios than females. Future studies exploring the ratio alongside physical anomalies could provide etiological insight into NDDs.
| S-EPMC6096789 | biostudies-other