Research suggests that prenatal levels of testosterone are related to finger 
length development and traits beneficial to athletic skill, such as power, 
endurance, visual-spatial skills, or sensation seeking and dominance behavior. 
In men, the second digit to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) has been shown to 
correlate with success in competitive levels of football (soccer), which 
suggests that the 2D:4D ratio is a possible marker for level of attainment in 
sport. The purpose of this study was to explore the 2D:4D relationships between 
sports and make comparisons with nonathletes. A multiple group posttest-only 
design was used. Participants included 138 male volunteers with 92 
intercollegiate National Collegiate Athletic Association division I athletes and 
46 nonathletes who were not varsity athletes. The independent variable was group 
(crew, football, gymnastics, soccer, nonathlete). The dependent variable was the 
2D:4D ratio. No significant differences were noted between the athletes and 
nonathletes (p = 0.182). Significant differences were found among the different 
groups (p = 0.000), with significantly lower ratios between football and crew (p 
= 0.000), football and nonathletes (p = 0.030), and gymnastics and crew (p = 
0.001). This research provides a stronger level of evidence that the 2D:4D ratio 
may help indicate potential athleticism or competition-level achievement, but 
the external validity may be limited to only specific sports.