Risk Preferences and Prenatal Exposure to Sex Hormones for Ladinos

Abstract

Risk preferences drive much of human decision making including investment, career and health choices and many more. Thus, understanding the determinants of risk preferences refines our understanding of choice in a broad array of environments. We assess the relationship between risk preferences, prenatal exposure to sex hormones and gender for a sample of Ladinos, which is an ethnic group comprising 62.86% of the population of Guatemala. Prenatal exposure to sex hormones has organizational effects on brain development, and has been shown to partially explain risk preferences for Caucasians. We measure prenatal exposure to sex hormones using the ratio of the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger (2D:4D), which is negatively (positively) correlated with prenatal exposure to testosterone (estrogen). We find that Ladino males are less risk averse than Ladino females, and that Ladino males have lower 2D:4D ratios than Ladino females on both hands. We find that the 2D:4D ratio does not explain risk preferences for Ladinos. This is true for both genders, and both hands. Our results highlight the importance of exploring the behavioral significance of 2D:4D in non-Caucasian racial groups.

Experimental and Self‐reported Measures of Risk Taking and Digit Ratio (2d:4d): Evidence From a Large, Systematic Study

“…r Five studies find a statistically not significant association between digit ratio and risk taking (Apicella et al, 2008;Sapienza et al, 2009;Aycinena et al, 2014;Drichoutis and Nayga, 2015;Schipper, 2015b).…”

Digit ratio (2D:4D) and altruism: evidence from a large, multi-ethnic sample

“…This matters because ethnicity has been identified as an important source of between-subject variation in DR. Manning ( 2002 ), for example, reports that the variation of DR between ethnic groups, and even between Caucasians of different European origin, is larger than the variation between sexes within an ethnic group. This raises the question whether relationships between DR and behavior are sensitive to ethnicity—as Aycinena et al ( 2014 ) report for the case of DR and risk taking.…”

Forensic evaluation of sex estimation via measurements of adult index and ring finger lengths using postmortem computed tomography

“…The smaller index to ring finger (2D:4D) ratio has been considered as a 'male finger pattern' and is associated with blood testosterone levels (Aycinena et al 2014, Robertson et al 2008, Warrington et al 2018. However, there is no report that examined the sex estimation using this method in a forensic medicine field.…”