Nothing strange [I Like Holding Hands]
As a normal human being with thoughts, feelings and stuff like that, you're dying to know how he feels about you. But then, as a millennial who's forced to play it cool, you'd rather gouge your eyes out than just ask him. So how the eff are you supposed to figure out how he feels about you? Well, how someone holds hands can reveal a lot about the relationship, for one thing.
Don't you worry your pretty little heart because there just so happens to be a ~scientific~ way for you to figure that out without ever having to have the dreaded "talk." You can figure out a ton about how your partner feels about you just by this alone.
It might be a no-brainer, but physical touch is really important in any kind of intimate relationship. “Connecting of hands is really, as humans, our first line of intimate touch,” says Dr. Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and host of The Kurre and Klapow Show. “Holding hands is that front line of communicating emotions physically.” I spoke to Dr. Klapow and to Vanessa Van Edwards, expert in the nonverbal science of love and professor of the Udemy course “Body Language of Love and Dating,” about what your partner’s hand-holding technique says about their feelings for you.
Right off the bat, this may seem like a pretty insignificant hand-hold, but it’s actually pretty sweet. Klapow notes that this is the kind of touch new couples or couples-to-be may use when testing the waters of how they want to make a connection. “If you’ve never had any physical contact, this type of embrace is really a gentle, cautious, safe way of making a first connection,” he explains. Even if it’s not the first time you’re touching, it’s still a “safe connection” and way to show a gentle desire for contact.
Van Edwards sees it as a pretty nice gesture from your partner. This kind of grip usually happens in a social situation where it would be weird for the two of you to show PDA all over the place, so this is their way of showing you, and the rest of the party, that they’ve got you.
"In a social situation, in a way that's kind of a sweet gesture because it's saying, 'I want people to see that we're holding hands. I don't need to have a super firm grip right now, but I do want to signal to people that you're mine,’" Van Edwards explains.
Simply put, they’re showing you off.
Don't you worry your pretty little heart because there just so happens to be a ~scientific~ way for you to figure that out without ever having to have the dreaded "talk." You can figure out a ton about how your partner feels about you just by this alone.
It might be a no-brainer, but physical touch is really important in any kind of intimate relationship. “Connecting of hands is really, as humans, our first line of intimate touch,” says Dr. Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and host of The Kurre and Klapow Show. “Holding hands is that front line of communicating emotions physically.” I spoke to Dr. Klapow and to Vanessa Van Edwards, expert in the nonverbal science of love and professor of the Udemy course “Body Language of Love and Dating,” about what your partner’s hand-holding technique says about their feelings for you.
Right off the bat, this may seem like a pretty insignificant hand-hold, but it’s actually pretty sweet. Klapow notes that this is the kind of touch new couples or couples-to-be may use when testing the waters of how they want to make a connection. “If you’ve never had any physical contact, this type of embrace is really a gentle, cautious, safe way of making a first connection,” he explains. Even if it’s not the first time you’re touching, it’s still a “safe connection” and way to show a gentle desire for contact.
Van Edwards sees it as a pretty nice gesture from your partner. This kind of grip usually happens in a social situation where it would be weird for the two of you to show PDA all over the place, so this is their way of showing you, and the rest of the party, that they’ve got you.
"In a social situation, in a way that's kind of a sweet gesture because it's saying, 'I want people to see that we're holding hands. I don't need to have a super firm grip right now, but I do want to signal to people that you're mine,’" Van Edwards explains.
Simply put, they’re showing you off.
