What Every BODY Is Saying_Navarro, Joe & Karlins, Marvin

TORSO TIPS 97

that people still show graciousness and deference in today’s world.
Whether done consciously or subconsciously, the torso bow is a nonver-
bal gesture of regard for others.

Torso Embellishments

Because nonverbal communication also includes symbols, we have to
give some attention to clothing and other accoutrements that are worn
on the torso (including the body, in general). It is said that clothing
makes the man, and I would agree, at least in terms of appearances.
Numerous studies have established that what we wear, whether a suit or
casual clothes—even the colors of our outfits, a blue suit as opposed to a
brown suit—will influence others (Knapp & Hall, 2002, 206–214).

BOX 23: A SUPREME KOWTOW

The universality of torso bows was dramatically illustrated to me in an old

newsreel of General Douglas MacArthur while he was assigned to the

Philippine government before World War II broke out. It shows a U.S.

Army officer exiting MacArthur’s office after dropping off some docu-

ments. As he leaves, the officer kowtows on his way out, backing out of

the room. No one asked him to do it; the behavior was automatically

prompted by the officer’s brain to let the higher-status person know that

his position was clear—it was a recognition that MacArthur was in charge.

(Gorillas, dogs, wolves, and other nonhuman animals also demonstrate

this subservient posturing.) Remarkably, the officer bowing out of the

room was none other than the man who one day would become the Su-

preme allied commander of Europe, architect of the Normandy invasion,

and our thirty-fourth president: Dwight David Eisenhower. Incidentally,

years later, upon learning that Eisenhower was running for president,

MacArthur commented that Eisenhower was the “finest clerk” he’d ever

had (Manchester, 1978, 166).