

Handshaking may be a chemical as well as a social greeting - known
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21645687-handshaking-may-be-chemical-well-social-greeting-smell-glove

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Retric
I think the focus on pheromones may be misleading. People can for example
smell a buildup of uric acid which is a sign of disease and poorly functioning
kidney's. So clearly people use sent clues even without pheromones.

PS: The perfume industry is $28.95 billion worldwide so the idea that people
care about how others smell should be obvious. And not just women as men's
deodorant is vary common.

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wtbob
> Not all of Dr Sobel’s observations make immediate sense. If the purpose of
> sniffing is to learn something about the person with whom you have just
> shaken hands then it would be expected that the hand sniffed was the one
> which did the shaking. That, though, was true only when the shakee was of
> the same sex as the shaker. Those who shook hands with someone of the
> opposite sex more often smelled the hand that had not done the shaking.

I think I have a hypothesis which fits that observation: when we shake hands
with someone of the same sex, we want to evaluate that person, and so sniff
his scent; when we shake hands with someone of the opposite sex, we are
concerned that we're giving the best impression, and thus sniff her scent.
We're subconsciously neurotic.

Alternatively, we're not attuned to the pheromones of a member of the same
sex, so have to sniff our shaken hand to detect them; meanwhile, we can easily
smell those of a member of the opposite sex in the air, and sniff our own
scent in order to compare compatibility.

Other theories?

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simulate
"We are merely exchanging long protein strings. If can think of a simpler way,
I'd like to hear it."
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSH88aE_ggQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSH88aE_ggQ)

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madaxe_again
Perhaps Dr Sobel just smells funny...

As far as I'm aware, the handshake started as an impromptu dirk-frisk.

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ripter
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handshake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handshake)
agrees with you (it's also what I had learned.)

We know people did it back in the 4th century BCE, so it's not a stretch to
think that it might be a lot older than that. Old enough that it's just
something we've always done, with no real idea as to why. So we make up
reasons, like to show we are not armed.

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dreamweapon
BTW, we have the love the article's secondary title, clearly a reference to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell_the_Glove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell_the_Glove)

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avianbc
Print link?

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justzisguyuknow
Perhaps it's some way to avoid a paywall?

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sumitviii
Use incognito mode.

