When Nonverbal Greetings ‘‘Make It or Break It’’: The Role of Ethnicity and Gender in the Effect of Handshake on Social Appraisals

Despite previous evidence identifying the role of ethnic and gender differences in nonverbal communication, few studies have comprehensively investigated the role of these factors in the effect of handshake on appraisals of social interactions. Here, 88 young adults (with equal proportions of Caucasians and East Asians, and women and men) observed and evaluated a series of movies illustrating guest–host interactions in a business setting. Each interaction started with a greeting protocol initiated by the host, which, in half of the trials, involved a handshake. The greeting was followed by a display of behaviors either encouraging (approach) or discouraging (avoidance) further interaction. Ethnicity and gender of the hosts were manipulated to depict the same categories represented by participants. First, the effect of handshake on appraisals of social interactions was more positive in Caucasian than in East Asian participants. Second, the effect of handshake on appraisals of social interactions was more positive for male than for female hosts in male participants, whereas such differences were not observed in female participants. Third, appraisals of social interactions involving approach and avoidance behaviors were more Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10919-017-0257-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Yuta Katsumi [email protected] & Sanda Dolcos [email protected] 1 Psychology Department and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E Daniel St, Champaign, IL 61820, USA 2 The Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA 3 College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA 4 Psychology Department, Neuroscience Program, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 123 J Nonverbal Behav (2017) 41:345–365 DOI 10.1007/s10919-017-0257-0