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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 16, 2026

One Dimensional Turing-Like Handshake Test for Motor Intelligence

One Dimensional Turing-Like Handshake Test for Motor Intelligence

Published on: December 15, 2010

A social chemosignaling function for human handshaking.

Idan Frumin¹, Ofer Perl¹, Yaara Endevelt-Shapira¹

¹Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

|March 4, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human handshakes may facilitate the subconscious transfer of social chemosignals. This study found people sniff their hands more after shaking them, suggesting a role in olfactory communication.

Keywords:

handshaking human neuroscience pheromones sniffing social chemosignaling

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Human Behavior
Olfactory Communication

Background:

Social chemosignaling influences human behavior, but transmission mechanisms are unclear.
The functional purpose of handshakes in human greetings remains largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if handshakes serve as a mechanism for sampling conspecific social chemosignals.
To explore the role of olfactory cues in handshake interactions.

Main Methods:

Covertly filmed 271 subjects during structured greeting events, with and without handshakes.
Analyzed sniffing behavior of participants' hands post-greeting.
Introduced unnoticed odors to verify the olfactory nature of observed effects.

Main Results:

Humans frequently sniff their own hands, increasing this behavior significantly after a handshake.
Post-handshake sniffing increased by over 100% on the right hand (within gender) and left hand (across gender).
Observed effects were significantly altered by introduced odors, confirming their olfactory basis.

Conclusions:

Handshaking may function as a method for active, yet subliminal, social chemosignaling.
This olfactory communication likely plays a significant role in human social interactions and behavior.