Why do people shake hands? People usually shake hands as a greeting, a farewell, a way to congratulate someone, or a sign that they have reached an agreement. The custom is very old, but historians do not have one proven story explaining exactly where the handshake began.
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Why Do People Shake Hands?
A handshake is a simple social signal. In many places, extending and clasping hands can show recognition, friendliness, respect, congratulations, or agreement. The exact meaning depends on the situation and the culture.
That makes the answer to why do people shake hands partly historical and partly social. People learn the custom from other people, and over generations it becomes an expected way to mark certain interactions.
How Old Is the Handshake?
Hand-clasping gestures are ancient. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has objects from the ancient world showing people clasping right hands. One Greek marble grave marker in the museum’s collection, dated to about 350 B.C., depicts a seated woman clasping the hand of another figure.
Smithsonian Magazine also notes that handshakes appear in ancient art and literature. That tells us the gesture, or gestures very similar to it, existed long before modern business etiquette.
What those ancient gestures meant could vary. A handclasp in a funerary scene, for example, should not automatically be interpreted exactly like a modern job-interview handshake.
Did Handshakes Prove You Had No Weapon?
You may have heard that the handshake began as a way for strangers to prove they were not holding weapons. It is a popular explanation, and the open hand certainly can communicate peaceful intent.
But the neat story that this was the origin of the handshake is difficult to prove. Smithsonian’s history of the gesture describes several theories and examples rather than identifying one certain inventor or starting point.
So it is safer to say that showing an empty hand may have contributed to the gesture’s meaning than to claim historians know that this is exactly how handshaking began.
Why Do People Usually Shake With the Right Hand?
In cultures where handshaking is common, the right hand is usually the conventional choice. Customs involving the right and left hands have differed greatly across places and eras, so there is not one universal biological rule requiring the right hand.
Once a social custom becomes established, people often continue it because everyone knows what to expect. Offering the right hand therefore works partly because the other person is likely to recognize the gesture immediately.
What Does a Handshake Mean Today?
A handshake can have several meanings. Two people might shake hands when they meet, after reaching an agreement, before or after a competition, during a ceremony, or when congratulating each other.
The gesture can also mark equality for a moment: both people perform essentially the same action at the same time. That makes it useful in settings ranging from introductions to sports.
Social customs also interact with institutions. For example, athletes and coaches may shake hands around competitions. If you are curious about another social institution, see D2 Colleges: What Are Division 2 Schools?.
Does Everyone Shake Hands?
No. Greeting customs vary around the world. Depending on the culture and situation, people may bow, nod, wave, place a hand over the heart, hug, kiss on the cheek, use a verbal greeting, or follow another tradition.
Even where handshakes are common, expectations can vary by age, setting, religion, personal preference, and local etiquette. A handshake is therefore best understood as one cultural convention among many rather than a universal human greeting.
Can Handshake Customs Change?
Yes. Social customs change when people’s circumstances and expectations change. The COVID-19 pandemic made this especially visible: many people temporarily replaced handshakes with waves, elbow bumps, nods, or other greetings to reduce close contact.
That did not erase the handshake, but it showed that even very familiar customs are flexible. People can quickly learn a different greeting when there is a practical reason to do so.
Why Do Leaders Shake Hands in Public?
Public handshakes can symbolize recognition, cooperation, congratulations, or an agreement. Photographs of leaders shaking hands are powerful partly because viewers already understand the gesture’s social meaning.
Of course, the image of a handshake does not prove that two people agree about everything. It simply communicates something about that particular interaction. For another question about political and cultural institutions, see How Many Kings Are There in the World?.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented the handshake?
No single inventor is known. Hand-clasping gestures appear in ancient art and texts, and the modern handshake developed over a very long period.
Why do people shake hands after a deal?
The gesture can mark mutual recognition that an agreement has been reached. Today it is often symbolic; important agreements may still require contracts or other formal steps.
Is it rude not to shake hands?
That depends on the culture and situation. People may avoid handshakes for health, religious, cultural, or personal reasons. A polite verbal greeting or another locally appropriate gesture can serve the same basic social purpose.
The Short Answer
Why do people shake hands? Mainly because it became a widely recognized social custom for greeting, agreement, congratulations, and mutual recognition. The gesture has ancient roots, but there is no single proven origin story that explains every handshake.
Sources
- Smithsonian Magazine — Why Do We Shake Hands?
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Marble grave stele with hand-clasping scene
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Handshake
Related questions: Everyday customs also include why people say bless you after a sneeze and why yawning can be contagious.