I'll Show You How: The Bowing Thumb Wiggle

Posting Date: 03/17/1999

What if you're driving down the freeway, and someone flips you the bird or cuts you off? These are the symptoms of road rage.

What can you do to help calm down the situation? Well you might try the peace sign, but this upsets some people as a political statement or just something irksome.

What else can you do?

Dr. David Givens, director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington proposes a new gesture in the war against road rage, a sign of road peace which he calls the Bowing Thumb Wiggle.

The Bowing Thumb Wiggle consists of tucking your thumb in your palm and waving your four upstretched fingers.

Givens likens the gesture to the submissive posture assumed by dogs when they lower themselves to the ground.

So if you've angered someone on the freeway intentionally or unintentionally, try using the Bowing Thumb Wiggle and see what happens.

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