Introductory Greeting Behaviour: A Laboratory Investigation of Approaching and Closing Salutation Phases

Abstract

Possible relationships among measures of nonverbal behaviour in the approaching and the closing salutation phases of introductory greeting behaviour and demographic data, physical characteristics, i.e., body height, vigour of the hand, and personality traits were investigated in a group of 50 healthy Swedish adults. Nonverbal immediacy behaviour, i.e., Walking Speed, Walking Style, Mutual Look, Presence of Smile, Foot Angle, Least Distance (between researcher and subject) in the approaching phase, handshaking variables, consistency, temperature, dryness and strength of the hand, and duration of the closing salutation phase, were analysed as well as attitudes toward the ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ handshakes. The introductory greeting behaviour between the researcher and the subject was filmed. The reliability and stability of the nonverbal behaviour over one year was satisfactory. In the approaching phase Speed and Style of Walking (heel or flat-foot walking), the way of standing when greeting (Foot Angle and Foot Distance), and Mutual Look were significantly related to personality characteristics of sociability, aggressiveness, and neuroticism. Observation of nonverbal behavioural measures except Walking Style in the approaching phase is relatively easily trained and may be useful as a part of preliminary brief assessments of personality characteristics. In the closing salutation Strength of the hand grip was in different ways related to aggressiveness, dominance, exhibitionism, sociability, and neuroticism. Most respondents considered a limp and loose, cold, and wet hand with no shaking pressure as the most unpleasant hand. The preference or dislike for a certain handshaking pressure was related to the actual pressure (Strength of the hand) applied by the respondent. Generalisations from the present results must even here be drawn with caution and only for a male initiator of this greeting.