(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-08 10:41

This may work against women, however, because their grips tend to be not as strong. But other research finds women tend to be stronger in other nonverbal communication skills that seemed to offset their less brawny grips, Steward said.

And in the study, women who did have a strong handshake seemed to have an advantage over men.

"Those women seemed to be more memorable than men who had an equally strong handshake," Steward said. "A really good handshake made a bigger impact on the outcome of the interview for the women than it did for the men."

Liberal leaning

A similar study in the year 2000 found that people with a firm handshake were more extraverted and open to experience and less neurotic and shy than those with wimpy grips. That study, which involved students, handshake coders and surveys (but no businesspeople), was reported in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

It found that women who are more liberal, intellectual and open to new experiences had a firmer handshake and made a more favorable impression than women who were less open and had a less firm handshake.

For men, the opposite was revealed: More open men had a slightly less firm handshake and made a somewhat poorer impression than less open men.

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