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image by virtual sugar, flickr artist

i was reading my most recent copy of espn the magazine when i found a brief article about ‘touch’ in sports called “contact high.”

“berkeley social-psych researcher mike kraus, along with psych professor dacher keltner, decided to track the performance of nba teams by the amount of positive physical contact players made during the 08-09 season. their work — to be published in an upcoming edition of the journal emotion — reveals a strong correlation between touching and win totals.”… “kraus explains that fist bumps, for example, serve to improve team chemistry, spatial awareness and cooperation among teammates.”

i found this to be particularly intriguing because of my liberal use of the #fistbump hashtag on twitter and yammer. i fist bump people all the time — in real life and in virtual space. i guess i knew all along, on a certain level, that fist bumps had a secondary benefit aside from serving as the actual congratulatory action — but now i’ve got science to back me up!

if fist bumps and high-fives can help the boston celtics and la lakers reach the nba finals, why can’t they help bring together an executive brief or trade show presentation?