Scientists have put forward unexpected, but very plausible hypotheses explaining the nature of the strange manner of greeting the new US president.
Smell matters
The Internet is full of videos of Donald Trump, the current American president, greeting him. People look - they are surprised. Slightly pity those who get strange, to put it mildly, handshakes. And they try to understand why he does this from time to time: he grabs the palm, squeezes it for a long time and strongly, strokes it, pulls on himself along with the owner of the hand, or clings to it himself. For example, the hand of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Trump did not release for 19 seconds, from time to time holding it with both hands. The premiere has already skewed - this was amicably noticed by world news agencies.
So why is the US president so assertive? There is a hypothesis.
Here Trump sniffs the Japanese prime minister
Scientists assure that the handshake ceremony is rooted in the deep past - to our primitive ancestors. If at a meeting they gave their hand, it was not only to greet, say, a newcomer. The main goal was to sniff with him, albeit not in the way that animals do, but in a veiled way - through a handshake. It turns out that modern people, without knowing it, shaking hands with each other, continue to sniff. For some, the process goes unnoticed, and some put it on display - maybe even involuntarily, driven by surging emotions. How Trump does it.
Promotional video:
Let me sniff you just in case
The nature of the handshake was sorted out by Idan Frumin from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and numerous colleagues who joined him. As they experimented, they noticed a very strange feature that no one had paid attention to before.
Scientists videotaped the volunteers shaking hands when they met. Records testified: the overwhelming majority of the participants in the experiment, giving their hand, then brought it to their nose. Fleeting, but brought.
Parallel shooting in infrared rays demonstrated: people shaking hands began to draw in air more intensely with their noses - the flow increased approximately twice. Volunteers sniffing? Not otherwise.
The conclusion of scientists: a handshake may well be considered an analogue of "acquaintance" in animals.
So Trump is "getting to know", but much more actively than others. He does not bring his hand to his nose, but the whole person, does not let go for a long time. To get a better feel.
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Frumin and colleagues believe they have discovered a chemical mode of primary communication that has survived through evolution. By sniffing, our distant ancestors judged strangers. Does it smell - disturbing, annoying, alarming? First of all, they identified potential rivals who were aggressive.
For most people, the prehistoric ability to sniff has degenerated - and our sense of smell is no longer what it used to be, and it itself has finally gone into the subconscious. The efficiency of the process has decreased, but the result sometimes appears. Proof of this is hostility or, conversely, the disposition to the person who gave his hand, which came from nowhere.
For Trump, it seems, either nothing in this sense has degenerated, or the so-called memory of ancestors has leapt. Sniffs obsessively and defiantly. It is worth, of course, to remove it in infrared rays - to compare the volume of air entering the nose during a handshake with that which is sucked in, as they say, in a calm state, and thereby test the hypothesis. Who knows, maybe Idan Frumin already guessed to do this - when Trump shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By the way, after a handshake on the palms, there really are "alien" aromas. Scientists have identified at least two odorous substances. This squalene is a compound that is involved in the synthesis of steroids and cholesterol. And palmitic acid is the so-called fatty acid. They are also involved in the processes of acquaintance between dogs and rats. Which again testifies in favor of the assumption about the hidden role of the handshake.
AT THIS TIME
Donald, hold five
Why does Trump squeeze the hand outstretched to him? Perhaps simply because he belongs to the generation of people who in the old days could do this. And they did.
American physicians from the University of Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina measured the strength of the handshake with dynamometers in several hundred modern young men and women. The results obtained were compared with those demonstrated by their "ancestors" in 1985. And it turned out that the current generation has noticeably weakened. For men, the strength of the handshake decreased by an average of 10 kilograms, for women - by 5.
However, a strong handshake is still valuable. According to a study by Professor Greg Stewart of the University of Iowa, employers are more likely to hire strong grip applicants. They believe that such people are better than the "sluggish" - more purposeful and determined.
Trump has already taken a good job. But he continues to shake hands tightly - either out of habit, or in order to demonstrate that he is purposeful and decisive, but at the same time he is not yet old or lethargic.
Trump's handshake makes some moan
ANOTHER OPINION
Closer to the body
Recently "Komsomolskaya Pravda" talked about research carried out by scientists from the University of Wroclaw in Poland. They have defined, with millimeter precision, the boundaries of the so-called personal space of residents of different countries. This is the distance at which people prefer to keep away from each other, if possible.
Having analyzed the behavior of almost 10 thousand volunteers from 42 countries of the world, the Poles made a kind of rating. So the Americans are in 30th place. This means that they are comfortable if someone does not come closer than 95.3 centimeters. Those who are higher in the rankings need more personal space. The average Romanian, for example, needs to be at least 139 centimeters from him to another person for peace of mind.
Trump, as you know, pulls the guest on himself, forcibly keeps him close. And thus invades his personal space. This can be extremely unpleasant. Can cause mental discomfort or even humiliation. Scientists equate violation of personal space with aggression.
Come here! Closer, closer!
And you come here!
And you too!
Trump is unlikely to have heard anything about Polish studies. Most likely he acts intuitively. It's just that the diameter of American Trump's personal space - 95.3 centimeters - is very small. Equally small is the likelihood that someone has a smaller diameter. Consequently, Trump has more chances to violate someone else's personal space and bring the "enemy" out of balance. If he, of course, leads to "provocation."
By the way, the "violator-aggressor" does not feel any discomfort.
How Trump greets people. Shaking hands with Trump, President of the United States of America:
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY