Handshaking and compliance with a request: A door-to-door setting

Although different types of handshakes have been shown to be related to an individual’s personality and social perception of the recipient, the effect of handshaking on compliance with a request remains in question. In a door-to-door setting, homeowners were asked for money for a humanitarian organization. Handshaking was performed or not by the solicitor before making the request in a random distribution. The results showed that more participants complied with the request in the handshaking condition (95.5%) than in the no handshaking control condition (53.3%). The difference between the 2 conditions was statistically significant.