Did you ever make a pinkie promise with your friend when you were younger? After reading this fact about your body, you will probably think those promises were a little stronger than you initially thought. Your pinkie finger looks like the weakest finger on your hand. Nevertheless, it holds at least half of the strength of your whole hand. Think about how you sometimes carry groceries. Come on. We’ve all been there. You are trying to carry in as many bags as you can, and sometimes you realize that your pinkie finger or your smaller two fingers can hold more than your larger two fingers.

That is because they can, due to the strength of your little pinkie. The reason for this is because the strength of your pinkie grows with everything you do with it, even though you don’t realize it. For example, your pinkie will help your thumb pinch. It constantly supports your other fingers when trying to do something, even though it is much smaller. A hand therapist at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, Laurie Rogers, told The New York Times that losing your pinkie would mean a lot. She said, “You’d lose 50 percent of your hand strength.” That’s a lot of strength to lose for a small part of your hand!