Did You Know You Can Tell a Lie From Someone's Handwriting?

Mine is atrocious.  And now a new study says it can tell why.

From my mood, of course.

We're talking about my handwriting, which, in some cases, is worse than my husband's.  Who's a dentist. And we all know how great those in the medical profession's is.

A new study at the University of Haifa reveals that our handwriting very much reflects our mood.  

Using a unique computerized system to locate minute changes in handwriting, researchers at the University of Haifa managed to identify differences between people in various moods, the goal: to create an objective index of mood independent of the individual’s subjective report, according to newswise.com.

According to cognitive theory, since the brain does not have infinite resources, when it executes several actions simultaneously, the secondary actions – including automatic ones – are impaired, the web site reports. 

Prof. Sarah Rosenblum of the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Haifa used this theory to develop a computerized system capable of measuring minute changes in handwriting, such as the space between the letters, the amount of pressure we apply when writing, and so forth. 

Using this system, she already discovered in the past that changes in handwriting can reveal when we are lying – both orally and in writing – and can reveal whether an individual is in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.

In the latest study, Prof. Gil Luria, Dr. Alon Kahane, and doctorate student Clara Rispler from the Human Services Department at the University of Haifa worked together with Prof. Rosenblum to examine whether changes in handwriting can be used to identify moods.

The study included 62 participants, who were divided randomly into three groups. Each group underwent an activity that put the participants in a different mood – positive, negative, and neutral, by viewing appropriate movies. Each group of participants was then asked to write a paragraph on the computerized system, including all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

The participants in each group were in a different mood, and the differences can be gauged empirically. For example, the height of the letters written by people in a negative mood was significantly lower than in the case of people in a positive or neutral mood. It was also found that participants in a negative mood showed quicker writing and narrower width of letters than those in a positive or neutral mood. The researchers explain that it is probably the negative mood that creates a cognitive burden on the brain, leading in turn to changes in handwriting.

So the next time you suspect your husband's really at the gyms when he says he's working late, check out his handwriting.