New Personality Research

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Demonstrate unconscious physical habits and prompt reflection on arbitrary categorization without requiring personal disclosure.

Use it when: Use during a transition or session opening when participants need a physical stretch and a light introduction to habit, bias, or personality frameworks.

Skip it when: Skip if the group culture requires strictly formal content, or if participants cannot engage in light physical movements without embarrassment.

Group arrangement: Whole room working simultaneously in place

Timing: Source suggests under 5 minutes; UWT structured plan is set to 5 minutes.

Materials and tools

• No special materials.

Before participants arrive

1. Ensure the facilitator has a clear view of the whole room and participants have space to stretch their arms.

Say this to open

Let us do a quick physical reset. Shake out your hands, take a breath, and clasp your hands together so your fingers interlock naturally. Keep them clasped and look down at your thumbs.

How to run it

1. Interlock fingers and check right thumb 1 minutes

   Ask everyone to shake out their hands, stretch, and interlock their fingers naturally. Instruct anyone whose right thumb is resting on top to raise their hand. Announce playfully that according to brand-new research, right-thumb-on-top indicates people who are incredibly brilliant. Allow a brief cheer.

2. Reset and check left thumb 1 minutes

   Tell everyone to release, shake their hands out again, and re-clasp them naturally. Ask who has their left thumb on top. Announce that this same research shows left-thumb-on-top indicates people who are extraordinarily creative. Let participants react.

3. Check parallel thumbs 1 minutes

   Direct participants to shake their hands out one last time and re-clasp. Ask if anyone naturally rests both thumbs side-by-side. If someone does, share the final spoof claim that research says they believe they are exceptionally charming. If no one shows this, demonstrate it yourself to complete the gag.

4. Debrief habit and labels 2 minutes

   Ask everyone to re-clasp their hands with the opposite thumb on top, noticing how unnatural or uncomfortable it feels. Facilitate a brief reflection on how quickly automatic habits form and how readily groups accept playful labels. Limit spoken responses to two or three participants to protect the clock.

Debrief questions

• How did it feel when you clasped your hands with the opposite thumb on top?
• What does this reaction show about how we respond to unfamiliar routines or arbitrary labels?

Finished output: Shared physical reset completed, with participants observing automatic physical preference.

Remote

Run on gallery view. Facilitator demonstrates the hand clasp close to the camera. Participants show their clasped hands to the lens or use the hand-raise button when their thumb category is called.

Hybrid

In-person and remote participants simultaneously clasp hands on camera and in the room. The facilitator monitors the room and the monitor screen evenly, calling out both in-person and digital hands.

Access and participation choices

• Participants with hand or wrist mobility limits may fold their arms across their chest instead, noting which forearm rests on top.
• Anyone may observe quietly without clasping hands or raising their arm.

If the session gets stuck

A participant finds the original source punchline awkward or inappropriate for work.

Use the modern neutral wording provided in the script, labeling parallel thumbs as exceptionally charming or independent thinkers.

Participants over-analyze the claims as actual scientific data.

Clarify immediately that the diagnoses are completely made up, but the physical habit of crossing one way is real and automatic.

Terms used here

• Clasping: Bringing hands together with fingers interleaved.