{"id":3179,"date":"2012-06-14T09:01:24","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T08:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=3179"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:37:54","slug":"lets-all-hold-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2012\/06\/14\/lets-all-hold-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s all hold hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometime or other, all of us hold hands with someone else. Whether it is with a &#8220;significant other&#8221; or with a child, it is just something that humans do. You would probably imagine that there was very little to say on this topic, but you might be surprised.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers have been looking into hand holding. I have to admit that I would like to see their application for funding for this work. I heard about the results of their investigations and decided to do a little research myself &#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The research showed that there are certain things about holding hands that seem to be universally constant in a surprising way.<\/p>\n<p>Try this thought experiment [or do it for real, if you want]:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Imagine standing side by side with your partner.<\/li>\n<li>Reach out and take their hand in yours.<\/li>\n<li>Look down at your clasped hands?<\/li>\n<li>What do you see?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is always a &#8220;leader&#8221; &#8211; that is the person who has the back of their hand facing forwards. If the couple is a man and a woman, this is the man in almost every case. The researchers observed this and then tried to explain it. They seemed to think that the explanation was sociological &#8211; at least for the most part. They suggested that, in most societies, the male has taken the leading role for many years and this just reflects\/illustrates the fact.<\/p>\n<p>I think that the explanation is simpler and purely physical. A man&#8217;s arm bones\/muscles are configured slightly differently from a woman&#8217;s. I do not know why this is the case, but it explains why men find certain kinds of grip and motion easier. For example, a man will tend to carry a bottle with his hand pointing down and the back of the hand facing forwards.<\/p>\n<p>What about a same sex couple? The researchers had nothing to say on this matter. I wonder whether, in most couples, there is a more dominant partner who might take the lead. If you have any input, please <a href=\"mailto:colin_walls@mentor.com\">email<\/a> or comment.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers did find something odd. If a woman is holding hands with a child [of either gender], she will tend to take the lead.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, I did some research into this topic. I was in a hotel with some work colleagues &#8211; mostly other guys, but there was one woman in the team. We were near Dublin, Ireland, but &#8220;cut off&#8221; from the city as the taxi drivers were all on strike. We were in the bar after dinner, trying to find some amusement. I told the others about this research and, after a few glasses of black liquid, we thought we would check it out and set off to talk with other [similarly bored] people in the bar. Much laughter ensued and I am sure that we had some good solid research results, but my recollection of them is slightly hazy &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometime or other, all of us hold hands with someone else. Whether it is with a &#8220;significant other&#8221; or with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10074,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions\/10074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}