yes, more persecution and less humour plese

What the hell happened here? You people keep insisting on handshakes, yelling how trivial it is. It was just an example of stuff like body language, manners and appearance, and some of you seriously underestimate that side. Some interviewers are better at their job than others, can see through appearances and make objective evaluations, but they're all humans and for all humans appearances play a huge part in forming an opinion about other people, especially if you only meet briefly. Some people appear to be stern and strong-willed, others obnoxious and some weasels, and it's little things like a handshake that create that image, not some magical aura. I don't care if you're trying to be coxswain and not care about anything "insignificant", but you always form that image when you meet someone. Some people make decisions based almost solely on that, others less so, but claiming it's trivial is ridiculous.

And it's not only a burden of human nature to try to shake off when you're interviewing. Like several people have said, when you get to an interview you probably have the history and merits for the job. Of course giving additional detail your resume and application don't have is important, but at that point personal appearance is already a valid reason as well to make even a conscious decision about someone. If someone appears annoyingly extroverted and overly sure about himself I wouldn't hire him to a design team of any sort no matter the qualifications if I've got other options. Having good social skills really is an asset in many jobs, and that includes more than being a salesman. It's part of the interviewers job to not only to count years of experience + degrees you have, but also figure out things like is this guy just shy person and nervous because of the interview or so scared of people he really can't express his ideas properly.

Fun fact I heard from the telly sometime ago: if you take people of the same job and position, tall people earn significantly more than short ones. (Sorry can't remember figures)