# What's Shaking...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555 "2009-08-24T21:56:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/1 "2009-08-24T21:56:27Z")
What hand do left-handed people go to shake hands with? Do they instinctively reach out their left hands…and then switch? ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/2 "2009-08-24T21:58:03Z")
Not in my experience. and I shake a lot of hands at trade shows and manufacturer conventions. Shaking hands is not something that requires a great of dexterity. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/3 "2009-08-24T22:23:59Z")
AFAIK, shaking hands as a greeting is not instinctive - it’s a learned behavior, so we just do it as we were taught. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/4 "2009-08-24T22:27:38Z")
I’m left handed and I’ve had to pick up the habit of shaking with my right, since that’s what most people seem to use. Yes, I do ‘initiate’ my own handshakes with my left during “hi i’m an interconnected series of tubes, nice to meecha!” moments. Just a datum for you. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/5 "2009-08-24T23:51:15Z")
No, the reaction to shake with the right hand seems almost instantaneous to me, because the brain realizes that hey, this is a social convention and the right hand is called for. There might be a milli-jilli-second of initiating with the left hand, but I certainly couldn’t nail it down. ---
**Author:** ![SurveyorAlpha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@SurveyorAlpha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurveyorAlpha)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/6 "2009-08-25T00:12:01Z")
I always initiate with my right hand. I have never noticed the desire/reflex to initiate with the left. ---
**Author:** ![Countrypolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/858c86/32.png) [@Countrypolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Countrypolitan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/7 "2009-08-25T00:20:16Z")
I work with a lot of lefties–no flubs there about which hand to use. I’ve also known lefties who shoot right handed. But the best part about lefties? Watching them write. Not all of them hook, but it just seems so backwards. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/8 "2009-08-25T00:20:46Z")
Why would I do it left handed? Everybody knows you shake with your right hand. What I do find odd is that I mime writing, throwing, etc. with my right hand. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/9 "2009-08-25T00:22:57Z")
I’ve got to agree with **gotpasswords** here. Why would there be an instinctive reaction to something as artificial as shaking hands? I’m left handed and I’ve never once had my left hand reach out automatically for a handshake. I don’t automatically put out my left foot when trying to accelerate my car either. In both cases we learn from the very beginning that the right hand/foot is used. In fact when I met someone who had lost his right arm it felt very weird to offer the left hand for the handshake. Nothing natural about it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/10 "2009-08-25T01:02:52Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > In fact when I met someone who had lost his right arm it felt very weird to offer the left hand for the handshake. Nothing natural about it at all. My brother was right handed but I always knew him to yse his left hand to shake. He lost his right hand the day I was born. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/11 "2009-08-25T01:29:45Z")
Me, too. I was _taught_ to shake hands, of course using the right hand. It’s not an instinctive reaction. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/12 "2009-08-25T05:45:33Z")
We are **taught** to extend our right hands as soon as we’re old enough to be expected to shake hands with anyone. Every left-handed kid I’ve ever met has instinctually gone to shake with the left hand the first few times, but it’s conditioned out of people very young. Young lefties are often [told](http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090727204524AAhs45S) that it’s impolite to shake with the left hand 'cause that’s the hand people wipe their bottoms with. Yeah, maybe the hand a lot of right-handed people wipe with… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-shaking/507555/13 "2009-08-27T08:24:57Z")
I just want to add that people aren’t that adverse to shaking with their left hand, if it is necessary, like when your or the other party’s hand is incapacitated, or even just holding something that is hard to put down. But I’ve never seen anyone do that in any other situation, left-handed or not. I think **Interconnected Series of Tubes** may be the odd duckling. But if you want a true poll, it might be better to ask in IMHO, or ask to have this thread moved there.