How to Spot a Liar...The Lie
By Kevin Hogan
Detecting Deception is no easy task.
There are different kinds of deception and there are different degrees of deception.
Some kinds of deception like omission occur when someone doesn't tell you something that is important. They leave it out.
"I was at the bar last night honey."Vs."I was at the bar last night honey... and then I met this woman who…."
There are also errors of commission.
"This car has never been in a car accident."(It actually has…twice.)
The first key point you need to understand is that not all lies are evident in nonverbal behavior. There are ZERO clues or cues for many lies.
Some people are good liars.
Some people are pathological liars.
Some people rehearse what there "story" will be over and over so it comes naturally.
Other times when people lie there ARE cues and clues.
There are a number of things I look for when I think someone might be deceiving me.
The most important cue is usually expressed by their feet.
People generally have no trouble controlling their torso, even their hand gestures and sometimes facial changes. But one thing that is hard to pay attention to for the "liar" is feet!
When communicating with someone I gain a sense for how their feet normally move in conversation. When someone deceives, their feet "behave" differently. That's my best and probably most reliable cue.
Next up I watch pupil changes.
Some people's pupils get bigger.
Some people's get smaller.
I'm not so concerned about the direction of the size (bigger vs. smaller). I'm interested that there is or is NOT a change.
The third thing I look for are expressions of boredom, indifference, and unconcern. These are tough states to fake for most people because they are typically unaware of their behavior. In young people this collection of vocal and nonverbal cues is even more obvious to the reader.
The "liar" will try and look indifferent but because they aren't used to behaving indifferent they are trying to guess what they are acting like. Unfortunately it's usually a dead giveaway.
If people stumble over their words, repeat phrases or words, when this is not their normal behavior, this is a pretty useful"tell" as well.
On the other hand if someone is on trial in the Kevin Hogan Mind Court…there are some things that I look for to find"innocent."
First can or does the person give a genuine smile.
It is HARD to give a real life smile when you are lying to someone. Obviously the pathological liar can but take out thepathological's and you have a real actor who can genuinely smileand lie at the same time.
Next I'm looking for "verbal immediacy." Does the person answer me quickly or normally? It's tough to lie and communicate quickly. The faster you talk the less time there is to process information. When you're lying it takes time to process information to make sure the story "comes out right." This doesn't mean that people who respond slowly are lying. It means that coupled with other "innocence cues," I become more convinced whether someone is telling the truth or lying to me.
Most people can't determine whether someone is lying or not with any degree of accuracy. When crossing cultural lines it's even more difficult to accurately predict whether someone is being truthful or not.
Sometimes experienced police officers show better than chance accuracy in deception but typically most people can't figure out truth vs. lie more than 55% of the time.
The reason is that people are looking at the wrong things.
They look at eye contact.
Fact is that eye contact isn't all that relevant in determining most people are lying or telling the truth.
Another cue people look for is nervousness, and yes, nervousness IS slightly correlated to lying but it's also correlated to being scared and afraid of being accused of lying!
Want to have a good guess as to whether someone is telling the truth of lying to you?:
Record the conversation and then listen to the conversation when you aren't in the presence of the person. People who can't see the person who is talking usually are better at detecting truth vs. lie. Why? The vocal cues are some of the strongest to pick up on.
Because it is such a well kept secret in the nonverbal community, there is one powerful strategy you can use to improve your odds of detecting deception.
Liars must construct their stories in chronological order. People who tell the truth will be all over the map.
The liar has to create a story, remember it in order and tell it chronologically. Because there is no actual memory to recall, they have develop a false memory.
The truth teller might often SOUND like they are lying because they are all over the map but the fact is that is more likely to be a sign of truth than fiction.
Ask the person what happened in REVERSE chronological order.The liar won't be able to do it most of the time.
Kevin Hogan
Body Language Expert
