But it's because of those cultural differences (and the fear of breaking a taboo) that diplomats learn that sort of suit-and-tie-or-thobe, shaking-hands-and-smi

But it's because of those cultural differences (and the fear of breaking a taboo) that diplomats learn that sort of suit-and-tie-or-thobe, shaking-hands-and-smiling, business-like-but-not-really thing that we are all used to seeing on television. That's what I mean when I say "universal protocol of interaction". Because it is a template with fairly standard rules, I imagine it would be easier to "predict" how two humans will interact like the technique demonstrated in this post. But then beyond that, I figured the interaction of diplomats might be so easy to predict ("smile, shake hands or bow, speak greeting"), that deviation would be more pronounced than for example the scene from The Office. Enough that some useful information might be conveyed in the deviation.