Washington, Mar 14: Men with ring fingers longer than their index fingers run faster, due to testosterone levels, says a new study.

Researchers from Southampton University have linked finger-length ratios to a host of things good and bad, from fertility and disease vulnerability to test scores and personality traits.

According to boffins, exposure to testosterone in the womb is behind the speedy kids and their finger-length ratios.

To reach the conclusion, scientists studied 241 boys aged 10 to 17 at a talent-spotting competition in Qatar. Those with longer ring fingers were faster at every stage of a 50-meter sprint race, according to an article in The Telegraph.

"The advantage they had was soon apparent after the start of the sprint and remained steady thereafter," Live Science quoted John Manning, a researcher at Southampton University who led the study, as saying.

The study has been published in the American Journal of Human Biology.

A 2004 study in the same journal found that the farther certain paired body parts were from symmetry — one ear or foot bigger than the other, for example — the more likely a person would show signs of aggression when provoked. (ANI)