What greeting should we use instead of shaking hands?
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TVTranscript
00:00 Put it there!
00:03 Oh, wait, have you washed your hands?
00:06 I may have some hand sanitizer.
00:10 We've been shaking hands since as early as 1800 BCE,
00:15 when we thought we could absorb the gods' power.
00:18 Well, we're absorbing something, alright.
00:21 Research has shown that we have over 3,000 bacteria on our hands,
00:25 including fecal matter from 150 different species.
00:30 Gross!
00:32 To make matters worse,
00:33 the average person shakes hands 15,000 times in their lifetime.
00:39 So what if we stopped shaking hands altogether?
00:44 Would losing the handshake make a difference?
00:47 Or would it just be replaced by something even more yucky?
00:52 This is WHAT IF,
00:55 and here's what would happen if we stopped shaking hands.
00:59 It's believed that shaking hands started as a gesture to show you meant no harm to others.
01:05 This was done by reaching out the right hand,
01:08 where your weapon would normally be,
01:11 and showing that it was empty.
01:13 The classic hand movement of up and down
01:15 could have been a way to show there were no knives or daggers hidden in the arm.
01:20 See, nothing up my sleeve.
01:23 Since then, it's become a gesture of good faith and commitment,
01:26 often used when closing a deal.
01:29 And that's just scratching the surface of why we shake hands.
01:33 Cultures around the world have different variations of who shakes hands and how.
01:38 But all involve getting touchy-feely,
01:40 which isn't doing much good for our health.
01:45 When we shake hands, and our hands have large amounts of bacteria or viruses on them,
01:50 we spread the bacteria or viruses to the people we shake hands with.
01:55 This increases the chances of people getting sick.
01:59 But let's say you just washed your hands.
02:02 Great, but it doesn't mean much if the other person didn't,
02:05 so the bacteria train keeps on chugging.
02:09 The transmission of common colds and the flu have both been linked to handshakes.
02:14 And the longer the handshake, the higher the odds of catching something.
02:18 Most doctors agree that cutting out handshakes would hugely benefit our health.
02:23 But is it that easy?
02:25 We're not just taking away a gesture,
02:27 we're taking away a concept that's been ingrained in our cultures for centuries.
02:33 So we need to find a replacement.
02:36 What if we lived in a world where, after you secured a multi-billion dollar deal,
02:41 everyone in the meeting high-fived?
02:43 Well, good news.
02:44 High fives transmit half as much bacteria as a standard handshake.
02:49 And if you really want to seal the deal,
02:51 fist bumps transmit even fewer bacteria.
02:55 What if our greetings didn't involve touching at all?
02:59 Hmm, that wouldn't work for me.
03:01 I'm a hugger.
03:03 What if, in the future, we just tipped our hats?
03:06 No, we'd need to bring top hats back into fashion for that.
03:10 What about saluting?
03:12 Or the peace sign that was all the rage in the '60s, man.
03:16 We could bow, wave, or do the namaste ritual.
03:22 If it were up to us, we'd be using the Vulcan "live long and prosper" gesture.
03:27 "That hurts worse than a uniform."
03:29 So could we do it?
03:31 Sure we could.
03:33 Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa
03:35 say that we're living in a time of heightened disease awareness
03:39 called a "pandemic culture."
03:41 It's changing the way we behave in public,
03:43 interact with each other,
03:45 and it's making us aware that everything we touch is covered in microbes.
03:51 So how would we get people to stop shaking hands?
03:54 Well, consider this.
03:56 Smoking used to be a cultural norm,
03:58 but as research showed, its health risks and
04:00 public education campaigns educated us about the dangers of smoking.
04:05 The norm changed.
04:07 Not smoking is now the cultural norm.
04:10 What if we used this model to change people's tendency to shake hands
04:14 into some other form of greeting?
04:16 Mass media and the Internet would make it easy to spread information
04:20 about the danger of shaking hands.
04:22 This would encourage people to adopt other practices.
04:26 Agencies such as the United Nations,
04:28 the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control
04:32 could agree on practices to replace handshakes
04:34 that would transmit less bacteria and viruses between people.
04:38 And if we really wanted to guarantee that people would change their greetings,
04:43 legislation could discourage or downright prohibit the use of handshakes.
04:47 We know that we need a way to connect with each other.
04:50 The physical contact of shaking hands
04:53 is a tried-and-true method used in both formal and informal situations.
04:58 But there are other ways we can connect,
05:01 assess each other, and indicate genuine intentions.
05:05 If we stopped shaking hands, it would be safer for everyone.
05:10 But hey, why stop at handshakes?
05:12 There are plenty of other ways that germs spread.
05:15 What if we went to the extreme and held in every single one of our sneezes?
05:21 Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.
05:27 [gibberish]
05:33 Look at that.