ArticlePloS one2015
Can persistence hunting signal male quality? A test considering digit ratio in endurance athletes.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relationship Between Digit Ratio (2D:4D) and Aspects of Cardiorespiratory Fitness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Pooled it
- Why Do Humans Exercise? A Neuro-Evolutionary Framework for Discretionary Physical Effort.Evolutionary anthropology · 2026Review
- Homo sapiens, industrialisation and the environmental mismatch hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Experimental evidence of life history trade-offs during ultra-endurance physical activity.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Running wild: Forest running enhances performance, enjoyment, mood, and future exercise intentions.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Handgrip strength and 2D : 4D in women: homogeneous samples challenge the (apparent) gender paradox.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Learning From Human Responses to Deconditioning Environments: Improved Understanding of the "Use It or Lose It" Principle.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2021Review
- Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
- Understanding COVID-19: A hypothesis regarding digit ratio (2D:4D), ACE I/D polymorphism, oxygen metabolism and national case fatality rates.Early human development · 2020Article
- Human athletic paleobiology; using sport as a model to investigate human evolutionary adaptation.American journal of physical anthropology · 2020Review
- No Association between 2D:4D Ratio and Hunting Success among Hadza Hunters.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Ultra-endurance athletic performance suggests that energetics drive human morphological thermal adaptation.Evolutionary human sciences · 2019Article
- Differential Placing of Flexion Creases Contributes to Sex Differences in the Second-to-Fourth Digit Ratio (2D:4D).Frontiers in endocrinology · 2019Article
- Short-term resource allocation during extensive athletic competition.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2018Article
- Why we should not dismiss a relationship between attractiveness and performance: a comment on Smoliga & Zavorsky (2015).Biology letters · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Various theories have been posed to explain the fitness payoffs of hunting success among hunter-gatherers. 'Having' theories refer to the acquisition of resources, and include the direct provisioning hypothesis. In contrast, 'getting' theories concern the signalling of male resourcefulness and other desirable traits, such as athleticism and intelligence, via hunting prowess. We investigated the association between androgenisation and endurance running ability as a potential signalling mechanism, whereby running prowess, vital for persistence hunting, might be used as a reliable signal of male reproductive fitness by females. Digit ratio (2D:4D) was used as a proxy for prenatal androgenisation in 439 males and 103 females, while a half marathon race (21km), representing a distance/duration comparable with that of persistence hunting, was used to assess running ability. Digit ratio was significantly and positively correlated with half-marathon time in males (right hand: r = 0.45, p<0.001; left hand: r = 0.42, p<0.001) and females (right hand: r = 0.26, p<0.01; left hand: r = 0.23, p = 0.02). Sex-interaction analysis showed that this correlation was significantly stronger in males than females, suggesting that androgenisation may have experienced stronger selective pressure from endurance running in males. As digit ratio has previously been shown to predict reproductive success, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that endurance running ability may signal reproductive potential in males, through its association with prenatal androgen exposure. However, further work is required to establish whether and how females respond to this signalling for fitness.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.