Your handshake can determine whether you’ll have a long-term relationship, a sexier partner: study

Your hands can be a window into your sex life. Confused? According to new research published in Evolution and Human Behavior, evidence suggests that your upper body strength — as measured by a handshake — can determine mating success.

Washington State University researchers found that strength affected lifetime number of sexual partners and current partnership status, but not number of past sexual partners or age at first intercourse.

Does strength define your sex life?

The study used data from the 2013–2014 phase of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a large, nationally representative sample of US adults, to generate the results. They found that stronger men are more likely to be in long-term relationships and have more sexual partners compared to their peers. Meanwhile, stronger women had a longer list of sexual partners compared to weaker women. However, power did not seem to affect the duration of women’s past relationships.

Additionally, strength was significantly more important to male than female partner status. However, there was no significant interaction for lifetime sexual partners.

Conclusion

The results of the study confirmed the importance of upper body strength for a male’s long-term mating success. Also, historically stronger males were more desirable as mates. Experts have long believed that a man’s physical strength became a key trait because it played a crucial role in the fight for a mate according to the principle of survival of the fittest.

“People have assumptions about male sexual behavior and how it relates to evolution. In addition to acquiring more sexual partners, establishing long-term relationships has probably also been important for men in evolutionary history,” lead author and anthropologist Caroline Smith said in a statement to Phys.org.

WSU evolutionary anthropologist Ed Hagen said, “Whether they are men or women, stronger people have more sexual partners throughout their lives. It was a surprising finding that somewhat contradicted the hypothesis of sexual selection.”