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Your fate is in your hands? Handedness, digit ratio (2D:4D), and selection to a national talent development system
- Source :
- Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition. 18:710-718
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2013.
-
Abstract
- Over the past decade a small evidence base has highlighted the potential importance of seemingly innocuous variables related to one's hands, such as hand dominance and the relative length of the second and fourth digits (2D:4D ratio), to success in sport. This study compared 2D:4D digit ratio and handedness among handball players selected to advance in a national talent development system with those not selected. Participants included 480 youth handball players (240 females and 240 males) being considered as part of the talent selection programme for the German Youth National team. Hand dominance and digit ratio were compared to age-matched control data using standard t-tests. There was a greater proportion of left-handers compared to the normal population in males but not in females. There was also a lower digit ratio in both females and males. However, there were no differences between those selected for the next stage of talent development and those not selected on either handedness or digit ratio. These results add support for general effects for both digit ratio and handedness in elite handball; however, these factors seem inadequate to explain talent selection decisions at this level.
- Subjects :
- Male
Sex Characteristics
Digit ratio
Adolescent
Aptitude
Normal population
General Medicine
Functional Laterality
Statistics, Nonparametric
Developmental psychology
Fingers
Hand dominance
Talent development
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Athletes
Case-Control Studies
Germany
Control data
Humans
Female
Psychology
General Psychology
Selection (genetic algorithm)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14640678 and 1357650X
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2c63d3fdbf119a03586443870ff443f9
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650x.2012.755992