ABSTRACT
Think about this: In the fall of 2012, when evidence of an extramarital affair between David H. Petraeus, a retired U.S. army general who was then director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Paula Broadwell, his biographer, was first made public, the media spent considerable time and energy focusing on Broadwell’s use of nonverbal communication. Remarks that followed included mention of her expressive eyes, her unusually toned arms (with added commentary on how much of her armpits her outfits exposed), and how her formfitting attire revealed her contours-as if to intimate that these were the reasons for Petraeus’s fall from the high station he once held.1 It is interesting to note that Petraeus’s eyes, limbs, and clothing were not described similarly. Instead, it was suggested that the once-mighty general merely had “let his guard down.”2 From this episode, we can intuit how men and women make an impression on others. The act is dependent in large measure on appearance, posture, and manner of dress. Men and women signal sexual interest differently: men by preening and stretching, stiffening their stance, and flexing their muscles; females by exposing their necks, primping, giggling, and lip licking.3
