That’s why, were it to happen IRL, I’d fall for it. Either I’d be interested, in which case OMG, he’s touching my hands and now he’s…what’s he doing? Oh, oh, well…that was…interesting…rats, now I want to hold his hand! Or I’m not, in which case I tense up and he drops my hand and the interview is over.
It’s the fact that someone (some many) have so thoroughly thought about and articulated what should* be something that comes of a natural rapport, and is then teaching it to people who don’t have this natural skill that’s creepy. It’s fucking with natural selection. If I’m interested in sensitive men who intuitively understand my body language, I don’t want one who’s taken a weekend workshop in it, I want one who’s a natural, who can pass that sensitivity on to our beautiful crotchspawn through his superior genes and his obvious superiority and sensitivity as a co-parent. That’s the part that’s manipulative - not that he’s testing my physical relaxation with a little hand to hand contact, but that he had to memorize the steps and study the process for what presumably indicates greater reproductive fitness.
It’s manipulation because, unless this Mystery’s Method extends beyond getting laid to creating a functional long term relationship, it’s misrepresenting the goods.
*Yes, I do have “shoulds”, even though I hate the word. 