Fingerprint Dermatoglyphics and Objectively Measured Physical Ability: No Evidence of a Practically Useful Association in a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Fingerprint dermatoglyphics is used in Ibero-America and Eastern Europe as a marker of physical ability for talent identification. A 2022 genome-wide study linked fingerprint loci to limb development and hand proportions, thereby supporting a morphological hypothesis. We quantified the association between quantitative fingerprint indices and objectively measured physical ability and assessed whether it persisted after adjustment for morphology. Following a registered protocol (PROSPERO CRD420261469333), we searched Web of Science and four Ibero-American databases and pooled Fisher z-transformed correlations in a correlated-and-hierarchical-effects model with cluster-robust variance estimation, with three-level and Bayesian models as companions. Twenty studies were eligible; nine contributed 122 effect estimates from 337 participants. The pooled correlation was r = 0.047 (95% confidence interval: −0.218 to 0.306); the three-level model gave r = 0.025 (−0.028 to 0.078), an anti-conservative interval. No study adjusted for anthropometry, maturation, or training; in four studies measuring all three, anthropometry correlated with performance (mean |r| = 0.45) more strongly than fingerprints (mean |r| = 0.17), and partial correlations did not increase the fingerprint–performance association. Certainty was very low. This study shows no practical association between morphological and physical capacities, which does not support using fingerprints to select young athletes.