Eye Contact and a Handshake

As we discussed the final chapters of The Great Gatsby we talked about what a hand shake can tell you about a person and how long you should hold eye contact with another person. I became very interested in the topic of eye contact. Mr. O'Connor seemed to think that holding eye contact for a long period of time was some sort of animal instinct and a challenge to the other person. I wanted to see if other people agreed with this. While searching the web for an article I saw something that didn't immediately occur to me, each country has a different social interpretation of eye contact.

In Islamic countries, members of the opposite sex should never hold eye contact for more than a couple seconds. Doing this can be considered cheating or even a form of adultery. In other countries it is rude to look at the superior person of the situation in the eyes. As far as animal instincts goes, I agree that there is some part of our DNA that says holding eye contact is a threat. I believe in class we agreed that dogs and bears were animals that saw holding eye contact as a threat and a challenge.

But why is it different in America? In our country we are told when you first meet someone you want to impress you need a firm handshake and to look them in the eye. Or why is it that when I type in "first impression" to Google images one of the first pictures I get is this:

A guy looking straight at the camera and reaching out for a hand shake.

This is a question I actually don't really know what I think about. The only tentative answer I have is that maybe in America we feel that in order to succeed we need to be aggressive, and by being aggressive we tap into those animal instincts and hold eye contact.
What do you think?