Handshaking may be a chemical as well as a social greeting

I think the focus on pheromones may be misleading. People can for example smell a buildup of uric acid which is a sign of disease and poorly functioning kidney's. So clearly people use sent clues even without pheromones.

PS: The perfume industry is $28.95 billion worldwide so the idea that people care about how others smell should be obvious. And not just women as men's deodorant is vary common.

> Not all of Dr Sobel’s observations make immediate sense. If the purpose of sniffing is to learn something about the person with whom you have just shaken hands then it would be expected that the hand sniffed was the one which did the shaking. That, though, was true only when the shakee was of the same sex as the shaker. Those who shook hands with someone of the opposite sex more often smelled the hand that had not done the shaking.

I think I have a hypothesis which fits that observation: when we shake hands with someone of the same sex, we want to evaluate that person, and so sniff his scent; when we shake hands with someone of the opposite sex, we are concerned that we're giving the best impression, and thus sniff her scent. We're subconsciously neurotic.

Alternatively, we're not attuned to the pheromones of a member of the same sex, so have to sniff our shaken hand to detect them; meanwhile, we can easily smell those of a member of the opposite sex in the air, and sniff our own scent in order to compare compatibility.

Other theories?

"We are merely exchanging long protein strings. If can think of a simpler way, I'd like to hear it." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSH88aE_ggQ

Perhaps Dr Sobel just smells funny...

As far as I'm aware, the handshake started as an impromptu dirk-frisk.

BTW, we have the love the article's secondary title, clearly a reference to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell_the_Glove

Print link?