16 = Intimate Space http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2015/02/24/what-the-body-language-experts-have-to-say-about-john-travolta-and-joe-biden/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na What body language experts have to say about John Travolta and Joe Biden By Helena Andrews February 24 Washington Post Intimate space, according to Navarro, is different in every country, but here in the United States it’s loosely defined as the nine inches of air between two human bodies. Get any closer, sans an invitation, and people get creeped out. Duh. “Violating this space that we consider to be intimate, it just makes people very uncomfortable,” added Navarro, before throwing in a lesson that most of us learned in Kindergarten: Keep your hands to yourself. That’s called social intelligence, and according to David Givens, who heads the Center for Nonverbal Studies, the veep doesn’t have it. “His social intelligence is not quite to the point of being good enough for the vice president,” said Givens. “His emotions get expressed beyond the comfort zone of a lot of people.”