The association between fetal testosterone and violent behavior: Additional evidence using the 2D:4D digit ratio

Recent meta-analyses on the relationship between prenatal testosterone-measured by the 2D:4D digit ratio-and aggression and analogous traits have reported an overall weak association. Fewer studies, however, have focused specifically on violent behavior. Yet, many of these studies have relied on small samples of incarcerated men and limited their focus to intimate partner violence. Less is known about whether the link between the 2D:4D ratio and violence holds for non-incarcerated populations, for females as well as males, and for general measures of violence. To address these issues, original data were collected on a sample of young adults to estimate the association between the 2D:4D ratio and self-reported violence. The study yielded two important findings. First, the 2D:4D ratio was associated with a majority of the individual violent behaviors examined, as well as multi-item measures of violence, in both bivariate and multivariate models. Second, the 2D:4D ratio was associated with violent behavior among separate samples of men and women, though associations were frequently non-statistically significant for females.