What does it mean when a man places the palm of his hand on a woman's upper arm?

Answer 1

It depends completely on the relationship of the man & the woman - if they're already in a relationship then it's fairly common...

As friends, contact like this can be fairly common, it's just a simple contact between friends, but could be a "leading" contact if they're walking

If you're talking about a man & woman who have recently met, it's usually a sign of increased physical attraction - the closer to the body, the more intimate the contact, so at the hand is generally an initial contact, on the wrist is closer and upper arm is leading to the shoulder and thus to body contact

If the man is a pick-up artist, then this is one of the steps towards more physicality, and will usually lead to kissing and further...

What is more important is the eye contact during the physical contact, if he's looking directly in the eyes and his irises are dilated then he's definitely attracted and wants to take the relationship further

(2) It may mean nothing at all.

In his 1977 book "Manwatching : a field guide to human behaviour" Desmond Morris has a section "Taboo Zones: regions of the human body that are out of bounds. This section analyses a survey conducted to discover which parts of the body, depending on whether you are male or female, may be touched by your mother, your father, a same sex friend and an opposite sex friend.

The results suggest that apart from the hands which may be touched by anyone 76-100% of the time, the next most neutral body part is the upper arm between elbow and shoulder which may be touched by anyone more than 50% of the time. This area may be touched by opposite sex friends more than 76% of the time but by same sex friends only between 51-75 % of the time.

I would make no assumptions about a man placing his hand on a woman's arm other than that he felt he needed to guide her, or catch her attention in some way.