You hear about body language all the time, and from diverse sources. Women’s magazines, for example, claim to hold the secrets of communicating with men without saying a word. Business websites offer tips for wowing potential employers or clients. Scientific journals, meanwhile, try to crack the codes of body language and separate fact from fiction. So … are any of these points of view valid? And where did this notion of nonverbal communication begin, anyway? This chapter will take a look at the origins of and reasons for studying body language.