Prenatal Testosterone Exposure to Socio-Cognitive Ability and Digit Ratio (2D:4D) in IPB University Students

Abstract

According to the Empathizing-Systemizing Theory, higher levels of prenatal testosterone improve the ability to analyze complex systems while in the other hand inhibiting empathy (socio-cognition). Effect of prenatal testosterone exposure also expressed in finger (2D:4D) digit ratio, resulting in male have smaller digit ratio than female. This research was aimed to investigate differences between sexes in socio-cognitive ability, digit ratio and their relationship among IPB University Students. Consistent with previous studies, male achieved lower score than female in cognitive empathy task (Reading the Mind in the Eyes test), with average correct answer 19.83 and 21.33 respectively. However no significant difference between sexes on self-report on empathy (Fisher Temperamental Inventory) is found. In case of digit ratio, the average digit ratio of male participant is 0.963 while female is 0.981. Even though the result shows decrement of socio-cognitive ability parallels to decrement of digit ratio, no statistical correlation is found between these parameters.