The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

GREETING TELLS
or forearm. People who produce reinforced handshakes
automatically put themselves in control of the greeting by
increasing the amount of physical contact, and therefore
their commitment to the other person. Single-handed
handshakes can sometimes be indifferent, but a
reinforced handshake cannot.
• THE RELOCATED HANDSHAKE. In a symmetrical handshake
the participants' hands should meet midway
between them - in other words in the middle of no man's
land. There are two ways that the handclasp can be
relocated so that it takes place in one person's space. The
first is the 'huddled handshake', where one person pulls
the other person into his personal space, thereby creating
a handshake that's on his own terms. The second is the
'invasion handshake', where someone fully extends her
arm, so that the handclasp is forced to take place in the
other person's space, rather than her own. To the outside
observer the culmination of these two types of handshake
may look rather similar, but to the participants they feel
quite different, because they are aware who is pushing or
pulling whom, and who ends up deciding where the handshake
should take place.
• THE UPPER HANDSHAKE. Another way that people can
make a handshake asymmetrical and impose themselves
on the other person is by rotating their forearm so that
their own hand ends up on top, and the other person's
below. Even though they may not be consciously aware
of what's happening, the person who manages to get his
or her hand on top - in the prone position - automatically
gains an advantage over the person whose
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