Introduction to Detecting Lies

The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security
experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for
anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie
can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other
deceptions.

Warning:
Sometimes Ignorance is bliss; after gaining this knowledge, you may be
hurt when it is obvious that someone is lying to you.

Signs of Deception

Body Language of Lies:

•
Physical ex-pression will be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand
movements. Hand, arm and leg movement are toward their own body the
liar takes up less space.

• A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact.

• Hands touching their face, throat & mouth, touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.

Emotional Gestures & Contradiction:

•
Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal
pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would
naturally, then stops suddenly.

•
Timing is off between emotions gestures/ex-pressions and words. Example:
Someone says “I love it!” when receiving a gift, and then smile after
making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is
made.

• Gestures/ex-pressions don’t match the verbal statement, such as frowning when saying “I love you.”

•
ex-pressions are limited to mouth movements when someone is faking
emotions (like happy, surprised, sad, awe) instead of the whole face.
For example; when someone smiles naturally their whole face is
involved: jaw/cheek movement, eyes and forehead push down, etc.

Interactions and Reactions:

• A guilty person gets defensive. An innocent person will often go on the offensive.

• A liar is uncomfortable facing his questioner/accuser and may turn his head or body away.

• A liar might unconsciously place objects (book, coffee cup, etc.) between themselves and you.

Verbal Context and Content:

• A
liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, “Did
you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last
cookie.”

•A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “I didn’t do it” instead of “I did not do it”

• Liars sometimes avoid “lying” by not making direct statements. They imply answers instead of denying something directly.

• The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you… they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation.

• A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When
a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more
than the rest of the words in a statement.

•
Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be
off. In other words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than
emphasized.

Other signs of a lie:

•
If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation
quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The
guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by
the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous
subject.

• Using humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.

Conclusion

Obviously,
just because someone exhibits one or more of these signs does not make
them a liar. The above behaviors should be compared to a person's base
(normal) behavior whenever possible.