Women Like Holding Hands More Than Men
For many people, couples or a group of people walking together either entering a social establishment, holding hands is not uncommon. The act of holding hands has become so common such that people do not notice they are holding hands or notice other people holding hands. For couples, the act may be viewed as a sign of intimacy; for others, it is a sign of friendship while a parent holding their child’s hand is a sign of security and parental love. Regardless of a person’s understanding of the act of holding another person’s arms, hand-holding is a common practice. Thus, I decided to conduct a research study to understand which gender likes to participate in the act of holding hands more than the other. For my research, I chose to observe the behaviour of people at a shopping mall. Through interviews and interacting with the test subjects, it becomes apparent that women are more likely to hold the hands of their walking partners than men.
To conduct effective research to identify which gender enjoy hand holding the most, I had to choose a local shopping mall as my setting for research. The local shopping mall provided an excellent setting for the research because many people visit the place. In addition to this, people of various ages visited the establishment and helped to understand whether age played a factor in the research. The shopping mall provided insight into whether people feel comfortable holding hands. Additionally, the environment allowed me to interact with people and interview them for research purposes. Since many people visit the establishment, the research did not take a lot of time, and I was able to employ different research methods taught in class to acquire data necessary for the study.
To gather the data that was needed for research, I observed and interviewed people entering and leaving the mall. At the local shopping mall, there is an open court with chairs where people are able to sit and socialize with each other. The open court allowed me to view people entering the mall and observe those who held hands and those who did not. Also, I was able to identify groups of people holding hands as well as the activity they were partaking and whether it was credible for research or not. If people were holding hands for an activity like taking a group picture, then I did not consider it as data for the study. Also, a child’s hand being held by their parent in a crowded place was not considered since it was a forced act intended to protect the child. After observing the people’s attitude and behaviour, I randomly selected people to interview whether they held their hands or not. Selecting people randomly allowed me to get an insight from different people on their views on the study topic.
Observing people enter and leave the mall, it is apparent that holding hands is a common social norm that many people take part in. Hand holding is a common practice that transcends people of all ages. From my observation, women like to hold hands more than men. Whether they are walking in groups or as a couple, more women were holding hands than men in the mall. In addition to this, it does not matter the gender since I also observed that women held each other’s hands as they made their way into and out of the establishment. From the random people I interviewed, some stated that they were unaware they were holding hands. Rarely did men hold the hands of their walking companions. Also, I noted that men were uncomfortable with the idea of holding each other’s hands. Parents stated that their sons were unwilling to hold their hands while their daughters enjoyed walking with their parents while holding their hands.
From the data that I collected through the use of my observational skills and holding interviews with people in the mall, women are more likely to hold hands with the people they are walking with than men. While sitting at the open court of the local shopping mall that I had selected as my research setting, I observed that people tend to hold hands while walking. Thus, it was easy to identify which gender likes to hold hands than the other. Women like the hand holding activity such that they hold the hands of any person they are walking with regardless of gender. However, men are uncomfortable with the idea of holding the hands of their fellow men. Even in the group, only women engaged men to hold their hands. The difference in attitude towards holding of hands did not only depend on the gender but age as well. Young male customers did not want to hold the hands of their parents while young females did. The attitude of holding hands could be attributed to the social understanding of gender since most men believe that hand-holding is a feminine activity.