How to detect a lie!

[SatiyaH]

Sometimes, a person's body language can be a giveaway that he or she is telling a stretcher. You've probably heard of some common "tells" that someone is lying:

- they talk quickly or change the pitch of their voice.

- they fidget.

- they fail to make eye contact.

While all of these things can be clues that someone isn't telling the truth, they're not foolproof, body language experts say.

Paul Ekman's book Telling Lies: Clues to Detect Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage takes on the eye-contact belief. It's what people commonly list as proof that someone is lying, he writes, but the problem is that this is so commonly believed that a good liar will make sure he does make eye contact. Pathological liars do this all the time.

Ekman says shifty eyes are better interpreted as a sign that someone is feeling emotional-perhaps from a lie, but perhaps just from nerves.

The better you know a person, the easier it is to figure out what those shifty eyes mean. I know my three-year-old daughter is lying, for example, when she gets a certain smile on her face. (It also helps that she says, "I'm not writing on the walls" and other confessions of bad behavior before I even ask what she's doing.)

If you don't know the person-let's say, you're a customer at his car lot-then you will have a harder time knowing if the pitch of his voice has changed, or if he always talks that high and fast.

One thing to keep in mind in a scenario like that is, it's easier to lie to people we don't know or care about.
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1. Their eyes cast down when they lie.



2. They add too much.



3. Nervous laughter.



4. They feign ignorance about something you know they know.



5. They take charge of the conversation to distract/divert you.



6. They play on your friendship: asking you to just trust them,



7. You sense that something is off; any clue will do such as saying "um um" as they are thinking too hard. They use shocking phrases and emotional issues to win you over.



8. You find YOUR eyes squinting and your head angling several degrees trying to follow along with their story.

9. When you ask for an explanation/clarification, there's a momentary gap while they conjure up something.



10. Explanations are given, that, while plausible, aren't good enough for YOU.

[SatiyaH]

According to TELLING LIES by Paul Ekman, liars are very careful on their choice of words. They are aware that any slip of the tongue can easily blow their cover. Good signs to look for are long pauses or frequent pauses in speech. This means that the liar is not sure where he's going with the story or maybe he can't follow through with the lie.
When liars are hesitant at the start of a sentence, especially when responding to a question, it means that he hasn't worked out the story yet, or he didn't anticipate that question.

Liars are easily detected through body language. Our face displays all kinds of emotions. Liars are especially prone to the tensing of muscles around the mouth and cheek area. According to Ekman, "Muscles move alone when one's emotional, whether it be from pressure, fury, horror, distress, or guilt." The mouth narrows and a lot of the time liars bite their lip.

A split second frown or look of disbelief can quickly be replaced by a fake smile to cover up any sign that a lie is being told. A wrinkled forehead, clasped hands (they're actually praying that you'll believe them) or raised brows are common among liars. Shrugs can be translated as helplessness. The liar can't really think of anything else to say except maybe "I don't know." Shrugs are usually used when a liar is caught without a good explanation or is at a loss for words.

When a liar covers his eyes or doesn't make eye contact with you, he's trying to hide his emotions (or hide the guilt). Scratching of the arms, fake coughs, swallowing, red cheeks, the twisting of rings, or fidgeting around are all signs of discomfort. If you've ever told a lie you know how uncomfortable you feel when you are lying about something while trying to make it reality.


Another thing to pay attention to is someone's voice. Ekman says that when someone is upset or in fear their pitch gets higher and they speak faster than usual. Liars like to change the subject (which is what they're lying about) quickly. They don't like to talk about what they're lying about for too long because there's a higher risk of getting caught.