Watchful eyes and a measure on the body that predicts success?

When there are images of eyes around, people are less likely to steal and more likely to donate money. What about images of other body parts? Moreover, do images of eyes make dogs less likely to steal as well?

What measurement on the body is correlated with success at your job and athletic prowess in sports?

In this episode, Lu and Tirth take an obscure anatomy terminology quiz, discuss how images of eyes, mouths, and noses affect pro- and antisocial behavior in people and in dogs, and dissect whether the size of a part of your body may predict success in life.

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Timestamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:55 Anatomy quiz
• 12:51 Watching eye studies
• 24:19 Success prediction studies
• 34:32 Let’s read some mail
• 36:03 What did you learn today, outro

Article links:

• Kelsey et al., 2018. Eyes, More Than Other Facial Features, Enhance Real-World Donation Behavior. Human Nature. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-018-9327-1
• Neilands et al., 2020. Watching eyes do not stop dogs stealing food: evidence against a general risk-aversion hypothesis for the watching-eye effect. Scientific Reports. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58210-4
• Coates et al., 2009. Second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts success among high-frequency financial traders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.0810907106
• Manning et al., 2001. Second to fourth digit ratio and male ability in sport: implications for sexual selection in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-5138(00)00063-5
• Nye et al., 2017. The effects of prenatal testosterone on wages: Evidence from Russia. Economics and Human Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2016.11.003
• Hayashi & Sakamoto, 2025. Sexual activity is predicted by digit ratio in rats. Experimental Animals. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/expanim/74/4/74_24-0159/_article

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