What does your eSignature say about you?
Published:
We’ve seen heaps of messy signatures at Howlader & Co written by people in a rush or working on a train. That’s one of the reasons why we love eSignatures — they’re much more convenient for busy people on the move because your eSignature doesn’t need to look anything like your wet signature!
We have fun trying to guess what the person behind the scrawl is like, but that’s just a game, right? Well, maybe not.
The science behind it
Hands up, the science behind handwriting analysis is, er, disputed… but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss it as hogwash just yet!
A recent scientific study led by psychologist Alvaro Mailhos found our signatures could reveal a lot more about our personality than science previously thought. Mailhos and his team took a stronger methodological approach than previous studies and controlled for factors like name length and signature style.
A more trusted use of signature analysis is in the prevention of fraud. Forensic document examiners are employed to detect forgeries, meaning they need to look at the authentic signature next to the one given on the contract.
Unfortunately, signature forgery is all to real, even more shockingly, most people don’t even think forging a relative’s signature is illegal if they have their consent. Wet signatures (ink drawn) are far more likely to be forged or tampered with, which means more and more companies are rejecting them – can you blame them!
What does your signature say?
Of course, you probably don’t want business partners to think you’re a narcissist just because you love to write BIG!
Instead you could use Signable to create your eSignature — which doesn’t have to look like your real thing — to legally sign-off documents. It’s much quicker and safer anyway, and there’s signature personalisation options so that you’re not loosing any of your creative flicks.
Some aspects Graphologists & forensic examiners be looking for are listed below, as well as what graphologists think contribute to forming a personal profile of the person signing.
Slant: Those who slant their words to the right tend to be outgoing, while those with left-leaning words are more introspective. Those with no slant tend to be logical in nature.
Word spacing: Authors who leave a large gap between words like to put barriers between themselves and other people, while those who write words closely keep friends nearby.
Pressure: Writers who push down hard with their pen tend to have intense emotions, while soft pressure implies a calmer attitude.
Obviously celebrities use their autograph every day, but how can you tell the real thing from a knock off signed baseball cap on Ebay?
Mark Zuckerberg
The top man at Facebook has opted for a minimalist signature which, graphologists suggest, indicates a private person who keeps others at bay. This reading of the billionaire is similar to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s who called him “shy and introverted” in a New York Times interview.
Donald Trump
The US President has a HUGE signature which indicates he’s a socially dominant person. Whatever your political allegiances, we can probably all agree the 45th President is no shrinking violet.
So yeah, it’s fun (or terrifying) to think what others may read from our handwriting, which is why your signature is a lot easier to forge than your eSignature. If people can replicate your slant and pressure it’s plain sailing from there, but with Signable’s audit trail signatures are forge-proof. The audit trail shows the sender who opened the document, when, and if they signed it. This helps you track the entire process where you wouldn’t with traditional signatures.
So yeah, your signature gives you a little insight into how much of a narcissist you are, but they’re not fool-proof.
Your eSignature proves a lot more than just personality traits, it proves the document is legally binding. Try eSignatures for safer signing and save your John Hancock for granny’s card.
Author bio:
Hasib Howlader is the director of Howlader & Co. He is a licensed insolvency practitioner, chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser (a rare breed!). Hasib also claims to have the best dahl recipe in London and is a die-hard Spurs fan.