The Ultimate Body Language Book

A hand-to-mouth gesture used to placate nervous hands.
To disguise handshaking, some people will grasp at objects such as drinking glasses, will clasp their
hands together or occupy them with “busy work.” Other times people will steady their uneasy hands by
grabbing the hand of a relative, cupped them hand-in-hand at the chest, or thrust them underneath the
armpits or in pockets. People who suffer from pronounced handshaking will develop elaborate
ritualized gestures to keep their hands from being noticed. They will play with the arms of eye glasses,
twirl pencils, or fidget with clothing. To others it will go unnoticed because they will appear as a
normal part of their repertoire – their baseline.
Does he always sit on his hands or is he hiding something?
Teenage girls meeting a celebrity pop singer are often seen fidgeting with their hands as they defy
gravity by bouncing up and down. Their hands will often be flung sky-high and they clasp together in
excitement. This is nervous energy personified and the hands show the limbic system in overdrive.
Watch for this “tell” in a poker game as hands might come together underneath the table to steady each
other. Hand shaking in poker, however, can be due to either fear of getting caught bluffing or the
excitement good hand. In this case, it is a person’s baseline that helps predict which of the two is really
happening. Hand quivering is important only when it deviates from a person’s normal repertoire of
actions. For example, if hand quivering suddenly starts up or stops when discussing a particular event,
we know that event is the root. It will then be our job to decide why the event caused nervousness or
excitement. The same goes for any other cue, be it a new person added to a social gathering, nearing
the edge of a cliff (fear of heights), being asked a question that is difficult to answer and so forth.