Complex Hand Signals

By Melissa August, Matthew Cooper, Wendy Cole, Ellin Martens, Desa Philadelphia, Julie Rawe, Alain Sanders, Flora Tartakovsky and Josh Tyrangiel

Does having a short index finger mean you're gay? A new study comparing index and ring-finger lengths says this ratio indicates how much testosterone people were exposed to in the womb, which may influence sexual orientation. Dr. Marc Breedlove, the aptly named Berkeley psychologist who's searching for the anatomical basis of sexual preference, reports that lesbians tend to have substantially shorter index fingers, a trait more common among men than women. Really short index fingers on men don't mean they're gay or straight, the study says; it means they probably have lots of older brothers.

A similar finger study at Rutgers University found a considerable overlap between gay and straight women, but according to yet other recent studies, women with long index fingers are more fertile. Moreover, men with long ring fingers tend to be better soccer players and musicians, as well as more depressed and virile. So pretty much all we can tell from the pictures of politicians' hands, above, is that they like to wave.