Is It Time to Stop Shaking Hands?
By Royane Real
Author of “Your Guide to Making Friendly Conversation”
When you first meet someone for the first time, do you usually shake hands with them? You have probably heard many times that shaking hands when you are introduced to others is something you should do.
Would it surprise you to learn that some people are trying to abolish the custom of shaking hands? Why would anyone try to get people to stop shaking hands when they meet?
When I was writing my popular book, “How to Make Friends”, I did a lot of research to discover how people could make friends more easily.
One of the things I discovered when I wrote that book was that people usually respond very positively when you shake hands with them when you are first introduced to them. In fact, shaking hands with people is one of the most important things you can do to create a good first impression on those you meet. Shaking hands is one way in which you can show strangers that you are open and friendly.
Most people today follow the practice of shaking hands when they meet someone new. Shaking hands when you first meet someone is supposed to be a way of showing them that you are a friendly and trustworthy person.
In fact, if you choose not to shake hands with a person you have just met, you may be guilty of creating a bad first impression. By not shaking hands when you meet someone, you give the impression that you are an unfriendly and stuck up person.
Is that the impression you want to give people when you meet them? Most of us want to impress the people that we meet, and we want to give the impression that we are friendly. So most of us, especially if we are men from a western culture, tend to shake hands when we first meet somebody. In fact, shaking hands is such a strong symbol of reliability and trustworthiness that some people actually seal their business deals with a handshake!
Shaking hands is a very ancient custom, going back thousands of years. It’s believed that the custom of shaking hands first started as a way of showing the people you met that you weren’t carrying any weapons.
Because shaking hands has become such an important part of the customs we follow when we meet somebody, why would anyone want to abolish the custom of shaking hands with people?
The main reason that some people want to eliminate the custom of shaking hands is because of health and sanitation reasons. As we go through our day, our hands pick up lots of different kinds of germs on the skin surface, and when we shake hands, we can sometimes transmit some dangerous germs to other people.
Researchers have conducted studies of health professionals such as doctors and nurses in hospitals, and discovered that these people often do not wash their hands as often as they should. For example, they have discovered that even people who were specialists in infectious diseases did not always wash their hands after using the bathroom!
If we can’t trust doctors and other health professionals to keep their hands clean, how can we trust everybody else?
Do you think that the custom of shaking hands should be abolished as a way of cutting down on the spread of illness? Or do you think that trying to abolish hand shaking is over reacting?
Is it time to stop shaking?
This article was written by Royane Real, author of “Your Guide to Making Friendly Conversation” available at http://www.lulu.com/real
There is some helpful advice for you in the following article by Rosanne Leaton that can help you learn how to relax more when you are having a conversation, through the use of hypnosis.
( These introductory comments above are written by conversation expert Royane Real. )
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