What Your Handwriting Says About You

Did you know that how you write can give clues that reveal your personality traits?

According to research from the National Pen Company, your handwriting can give away clues to about 5,000 different personality traits based on the way you space your letters, how you sign your name, and even how you connect the letter 'o' and 's' to other letters in a word.

Whether you mind your "p"s and "q"s, dot your "i"s and cross your "t"s can say a lot about your personality, how you think and behave, and even how much energy you have.

What’s more interesting, perhaps, is that your handwriting can be used to identify potential health and mental problems, including schizophrenia and psychosis.

Apparently, movement abnormalities are a core feature of psychosis. One method of identifying movement abnormalities includes analysis of an individual’s handwriting. Individuals at risk for psychosis reportedly show significantly more dysfluent pen movements in handwriting tasks.

Moreover, your handwriting can be used to detect when you are lying. Yep, you can detect people’s lies in their handwriting.

According to a scientific report by Thomas Li-Ping Tang, PhD Professor of Management Jennings A. Jones College of Business, “When most honest people lie, they try to hide their stressful emotions in the encoding process. As a consequence, they deviate from their own normal writing and violate their own personal moral standards.

The art or science of detecting a lie in a handwritten sample is to focus not on what they write, but on how they write it, adds Tang. That means employers and business managers may be able to detect honest employees, job candidates, and other people's lies in a handwritten message.

Intriguing, right?

However, you may rightly wonder whether there is any merit to these analyses of people’s handwriting.

Well, scientific analysis of handwriting (also known as graphology) is debatable. But it is still often used by psychologists, employers and even law court officials to evaluate and determine a person's nature and personality traits through patterns revealed by their handwriting.

If you are interested in this alternative method for picking out clues about someone, here’s a quick run down of some handwriting styles and what they say about you:

Small Letters

People who have a small handwriting tend to be shy, studious, and meticulous.

If you use small letters in your handwriting, you are most likely introverted and have a strong focus and concentration.

Large Letters

People who have larger handwriting tend to be outgoing and love attention.

If you use large letters, you are most likely people oriented and want to feel understood and noticed.

Letters Close Together

Those people who write letters close together are intrusive and likely to crowd others,

If your writing or signature is illegible, it also means you are private and difficult to understand.

Letters Widely Spaced

People who space letters widely enjoy their freedom and independence. If you space your letters widely, it means you enjoy large crowds and are likely to be an extrovert.

If writing dominates the space, it also means the writer will tend to dominate others.

“Abnormally wide spacing is extremely strange and abnormal because so few people do this. Anytime you see a writing that is abnormal, it means that the writer is abnormal...”, says Andrea McNichol, author of Handwriting Analysis: Putting It to Work for You, whose author bio states that she has been “consulted by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, Scotland Yard, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Fortune 500 companies for her expertise in handwriting analysis.

“The abnormal distance he puts between each letter symbolizes the abnormal distance he puts between himself and other people. So, this person is socially isolated,” she says.

Letters Evenly Spaced

Average spacing in your writing means that you are well-adjusted and adjustable. If your writing features even spacing, it means you are aware of boundaries.

Rounded Letters

Rounded letters are associated with being artistic or creative.

Connected Letters

Connected letters are associated with intelligence. If your writing features connected letters, it means you are intelligent and intuitive.

Letters Not Connected

If your letters are not connected, it means you are logical, methodical and make decisions carefully.

Heavy Pressure

If you apply heavy pressure when writing, it means you have strong emotions and feel strongly. It also means that you can be quick to react.

Light Pressure

If you use light pressure when writing, it means you move easily from place to place. It also means that you don’t wear yourself emotionally.

What Your Handwriting Says About You – Infographic

If you still want to learn more, check out this fun and insightful infographic below by National Pen that’ll help you discover more of what your handwriting says about you.

After you’ve gone through all this information, take out a blank sheet of paper and write down a few words. Analyze your own handwriting and let us know what insights you learn.