Here are 8 ways to spot a lie of anyone? Deception and lying are both common human behavior. There has not been much research on how many people lie until recently. According to a Reader’s Digest survey, 96% of respondents admitted to lying at least once.
Most people lie from time to time. These lies may be little white lies meant to protect someone’s feelings (“No, this shirt doesn’t make you fat !”). These lies can also be more sinister and used to cover up a crime.
Signs that Someone Might Be Lying
Some of the red flags that researchers found that could indicate people are deceptive include
- Being vague; offering few details
- Repetition questions before answering them
- Speaking in sentence fragments
- Inability to provide details when a story has been challenged
- Grooming behavior such as playing with hair, pressing lips to lips
Although it is difficult to detect deceit, good training can help improve one’s ability.
8 Ways To Spot A Lie
There are some ways to spot a lie and distinguish fact from fiction if you suspect someone is lying.
1. Examine body language
If someone lies, their body language is often a sign that they are lying. They might hide their hands completely or fidget with their hands. They may shrug their shoulders or not be able to stand straight. Or, they might make their bodies look smaller so that they are less visible. These physical signs can help you determine if someone is honest.
2. Search for micro-expressions
Micro-expressions can be facial expressions that flash for only a fraction of a second on someone’s face and reveal their true emotions underneath the lies. Although some people are naturally sensitive to these expressions, almost anyone can learn to recognize them.
A person lying will usually have their micro-expression be a feeling of distress. This is characterized by the eyebrows being pulled up towards the middle of your forehead and causing lines to appear across your forehead.
3. Watch the eye movements
You can often tell if someone is recalling something or just making up something based on their eye movements. If they are left-handed, people’s eyes move to the left and up when they remember details. Right-handed people tend to move their eyes up and to the right when they make up something.
When they are telling lies, people tend to blink faster (“eye flutter”) and their eyes move more quickly. When they lie, people (especially men) may rub their eyes more. Pay attention to your eyelids. When someone hears or sees something that is not agreeable, their eyelids will close faster than usual. This can be a subtle change, so it is important to observe how they blink in a normal situation. This could be another sign that the person is trying to “block out the truth”.
4. The Right Signals
One meta-analysis found that people often rely upon valid cues to detect lies. However, the problem may lie in the weakening of these cues as indicators of deception.
The deception cues are the most precise that people pay attention to.
- Being vague: If a speaker seems to deliberately leave out vital details, it could be that they are lying.
- Vocal insecurity: A person who seems uncertain or insecure is more likely to be thought to lie.
- Infference: A person who shrugs, lacks expression, and is seated in a boring position can all be signs that they are lying. This is because the person wants to avoid communicating emotions or telling.
- Thinking too hard: It could be that the person is trying to trick you.
This lesson teaches us that although body language can be useful, it is crucial to pay attention and understand the signals. Experts warn that too much reliance on certain signals could lead to a loss of ability to detect lies.
5. Get them to tell their story in reverse
You can view lie detection as a passive process. It is easy to assume that people can simply observe a potential liar’s body language and facial expressions to spot obvious “tells.” However, it is possible to get better results by taking an active approach to uncovering lies.
Research suggests that lying detection accuracy can be improved by asking people to tell their stories in reverse chronological order. Cognitive load may increase the ability to distinguish truth-telling from lying.
Lying can be more mentally taxing than telling the truth. Behavioral cues can become more obvious if you have more cognitive complexity.
Telling lies is more difficult cognitively. Liars also tend to spend more mental energy monitoring their behavior and evaluating others’ responses. They care about their credibility and make sure that others believe what they tell. This takes a lot of work, so it is worth trying to find cracks in their stories and other indicators.
6. Do not rely on eye contact to identify a liar
Contrary to popular belief, a liar doesn’t always avoid eye contact. They might naturally look at objects that are not moving to aid in their focus and recall. To appear more sincere, liars might make eye contact in order to appear more sincere. This can be done to alleviate any discomfort and to “prove” that the truth is being told. Liars make more eye contact because they believe it will make them seem sincere.
Sometimes, a sign that you are stressed is a lack of eye contact. If someone looks away when you ask them a question, this could be an indicator that they are stressed out.
7. Attention to sentence structure
People who lie may have their speech tone or cadence change. People may speak with a different tone or speed or use a higher or lower pitch. They may have a more complex sentence structure with very specific information. Their brain is working at full speed.
8. Have all the answers
When you ask someone a question such as “What did you do this weekend?” they will usually pause and reflect on it. If someone lies, they will often practice their answers so that they don’t hesitate to give their answers. If they can give you the answers immediately without pausing, it could be a sign that they are lying.
Conclusion
There is no one way to tell if someone is lying. Researchers have identified a variety of indicators and behaviors that can be used to detect lying.
When assessing the truthfulness of someone’s story, don’t look at the “lying signs”. Instead, learn to identify subtler behaviors that could be indicative of deception. If necessary, you can take a more proactive approach and pressure the speaker. You might also ask the speaker to tell the story in reverse order.
Trust your instincts, last but not least. Perhaps you have an intuitive sense of honesty and dishonesty. Listen to your gut instincts.
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