004: High-five complete strangers

The high-five is a complex social gesture. It cannot be ignored—by anyone. No-one can ignore a high-five! To leave someone hanging is a gross breach of etiquette. Like a gangsta scientist, I decided to take this hypothesis to the street.

I started out easy; my first high-five was with a friend. I then moved on to men waiting in line. "HIGH FIVE!" I would say in a loud, clear voice. They would turn, as stunned as deer in the headlights, and mechanically raise their own hand. SLAP! The high-five was complete.

They were powerless. None could resist the high-five. I continued to high-five, but I took on greater challenges; a man of a different ethnicity, a teen, and a woman. The woman was right on the cusp of being startled and being genuinely frightened. Nevertheless, she completed the high-five at half mast.

Having scared off my friend by this point with my egregious lack of propriety, I sought out new targets for my happy slapping. Another two men high-fived with glazed expressions. I held up my hand five metres in advance to high-five an elderly Indian man, but by the time he became aware of my fiving intentions and had taken his hand out of his pocket, we had passed like reluctant jousters.

It was my ONLY incomplete high-five. Every single other person I offered a high-five took it. There were 26 completed high-fives and just one fail—but it was clear that the non-fiver's intention was to high-five, had his mind not been on non-fiving matters at the time.

My hypothesis is confirmed. No-one can resist a high-five. It doesn't matter if the five arrives context-free, or in a funny accent, or from an acute angle. The high-five is an irresistible force.