Palmar perspiration as an index of tension and its relationship to personality factors

The aim of this study was to investigate palmar perpiration as an indicator of emotional tension, and to discover whether it is sensitive to changes in emotional level. Also, it was hypothesized that individual differences in palmar perspiration level might be related to personality factors. Research on the palmar perspiration index has been limited. Physiological studies have revealed that sweating is in part a response of the sympathetic nervous system. Palmar perspiration is the most sensitive to sympathetic stimulation and hte least sensitive to temperature changes. For this reason it has been termed "emotional sweating". A colorimetric technique was developed by Silverman and Powell for recording perspiration from the finger-tips. This technique is applicable to experimental study of the perspiration index. [...]