Correlation of dermatoglyphics with emotional intelligence amongst medical students

ABSTRACT

Background: Dermatoglyphics is the study of patterns of epidermal ridges on the volar surfaces of the skin. Thisis said to be associated with multiple intelligences in humans based on the fact that the neocortex anddermatoglyphic prints are developing simultaneously during embryogenesis and they are both geneticallydetermined. Hence this cross-sectional observational study to correlate Emotional Intelligence and dermatoglyphicpatterns.A self-evaluating questionnaire was applied on 100 M.B.B.S students, fingerprints of whom were collected using‘Ink and Paper’ method. The subjects were then categorized into two groups- Category A including subjects withEQ>120; and Category B including subjects with EQ<120. The collected fingerprints were categorized into PlainArches, Tented Arches, Ulnar Loops, Radial Loops, Whorls and Composite. The data was then tabulated andobserved for recurrence of patterns in each category of EQ and was statistically analyzed.Results: In Category A, the most recurring pattern is Ulnar Loop. In Category B, the most recurring fingerprintpattern is Ulnar Loop in all digits except the L4 and R4 in which Whorl is the most recurring type. The chi squaretest of significance and exact test of association were applied and ‘p’ values were calculated and none of themwere <0.05.Conclusion: The results correspond with the observations made in a previous study correlating dermatoglyphicsand IQ amongst medical students. Hence, the aforementioned results may be suggestive of some correlationbetween dermatoglyphics and EQ. However, the lack of statistical significance may be attributed to the modestsample size. Further research is required in this regard to validate the results of this study.