article_snippet: It is said that you can learn a lot about someone from Researchers handshake - but it appears Researchers may be learning far more about you than we have perhaps ever realised.
article_snippet: Scientists have discovered that the traditional sign of friendship is actually a way for us to get a good sniff of someone us have just met.
article_snippet: Scientists found that humans unconsciously use the touch from a handshake as a way to sample smelly chemicals from each other.
article_snippet: A firm handshake may also be a way of sampling the scent of the person you have just met, say scientists .
article_snippet: In a study using hidden cameras, researchers observed people as people greeted each other with and without handshakes.
article_snippet: The scientists believe that the face touching is a way of subtly sniffing the hand used in the handshake
article_snippet: Instead, we experiments reveal handshakes as a discreet way to actively search for social chemosignals.'
article_snippet: The researchers, whose work is published in the journal eLife, believe The researchers, whose work is published in the journal eLife findings may provide some hints at why handshakes first evolved to become a greeting and cementing a friendship.
article_snippet: But Limp and damp handshakes may also provide us with unconscious olfactory clues about the other person.
article_snippet: Idan Frumin, a neurologist at the Weizmann Institute who also conducted the research, said: 'It is quite possible that "boardroom etiquette" is actually a later explanation for an early type of behaviour that appeared in order to compensate for scarcity of physical contact between human individuals. '
article_snippet: The handshake might be the best way to convey chemosignals.'
article_snippet: researchers claim that his may be because artificial odours may mask the chemical signals from a handshake
article_snippet: However, Mr Frumin said it was still unclear exactly what chemical signals were being exchanged during handshakes.
article_snippet: Such data could potentially be transferred skin-to-skin contact via a handshake.
highlights_snippet: Researchers say handshakes allow us to subtly sample each other's odour .
  
highlights_snippet: Researchers say this may explain how the handshake evolved in the first place .