There are quite a lot of signs, that can help us to detect when someone is telling a lie. However, there are none, which would allow us to claim without reservation if we heard truth or a lie.

Lie reflects in one’s face

It is worth knowing that those who are under the pretence are usually very cheerful, do not show teeth when they smile and their eye-look is usually fixed. When people laugh sincerely they twist up their lower eyelids and therefore, the eyes look smaller. In this case, if there wasn’t a change in the eye size, it is possible that a person laughed just because his boss had told a joke, but the joke itself was not funny for him.

Those who are under the pretence of surprise look very intently, widely opens their eyes. He/she as if tries to say ‘it’s unbelievable’. However, such amazement is not real. A person, who is really astonished usually opens his mouth.

Animals as well as people when they are trying to hear or when they are watching something very attentively usually hold their breath. So if a person is looking at you and is breathing very smoothly, then he is not interested in you.

True feelings reflect in the person’s face earlier than something is said. An acted feeling usually goes together with the words or sometimes after them. An artificial smile is easy to recognize( who haven’t seen a smile of the salespeople!). Almost all salespeople, at first, measure a person whom they like with their eyes and only then give a smile. However, such a smile appears as quickly as it disappears.

Maybe the most reliable sign showing that a person is lying is his/her face asymmetry. Both sides of human face are not identical, but when a person is lying the differences become even more prominent. For instance, his/her lips may twist, one eye may look bigger than the other or one side of the face may look sad, angry when the other looks happy. These are the most obvious signs of a lie. Unfortunately, these signs remain noticeable only a split second.

Non-verbal language

Our non-verbal language signs are symbols, which have a very clear meaning. Everyone knows what does a shrug, a nod mean. Such signs are usually shown consciously and purposefully. The one, who use such signs exactly knows what he/she does. We speak also consciously, but sometimes we mix some words and say what we didn’t intend. The same thing can happen with non-verbal language. If, for example, a sign remains unfinished and a man instead of shrugging his both shoulders moves only one we can be quite sure that such unfinished symbol shows his/her true, but hided feelings.

Another type of non-verbal language signs are illustrations. When describing something a person usually uses some signs (movements) to emphasise its meaning, but cases when a person consciously controls such illustrations are rather rare. A person, who lies also knows that it is impossible to control all his/her movements and that’s why he/she takes the easiest way not to be caught lying, that is they avoid to illustrate their language by movements. The same way behave people who lack self-confidence. Those who carefully scheme what they are going to say and tries to follow his prepared plan, which was not used in practice will try to avoid illustrations when speaking. A liar, who is often not ready for unexpected questions or having very little lying experience will be afraid of being caught and so will possibly avoid illustrating his language by non-verbal signs.

Sometimes people stroke themselves, mop some imaginable dust from their clothes, scratches and makes a lot of movements, should allow him feel physically comfortable. These are all manipulations. Their mane purpose is to calm down oneself. An inexperienced liar is constantly fixing his tie or touching his face. However, all these movements are not a reliable sign that a person is lying. They only confirm, that a speaker feels uncomfortable.

Does the voice also lie?

A person who is lying sounds a bit different from a person, who is telling truth. It is surprising, that very often a very good liar can be recognized from carelessly selected words and other language mistakes. The originator of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud wrote that language mistakes in reading and writing are not accidental and that they attest some inner, psychological conflict. When a husband calls his wife form Paris and tells: ‘Darling the flight is delayed because of the bad weather. The conference took longer than I have expected. I will sleep at her place’ and later tells that he is going to sleep at the hotel. In this case, his wife should really notice all language mistakes and his desperate efforts to justify his delay by giving several reasons, that prevent him from coming home.

Sometimes you can recognise a lie from the manner of speaking. An inexperienced liar can try to outtalk his companion and to say his arguments as quickly as possible and this way to change the theme of the topic what helps him/her to avoid unwanted questions. Such a way of lying is usually chosen by politics who can be seen on TV almost every week. They speak very quickly and do not allow to interrupt themselves. And the most interesting thing is, that this unwise trick works quite well.

The voice, its tone and the clarity of pronunciation can describe a person as good as the things he tells. If pauses are too long or frequent and if there are too many language fillers like ’hmmm’, ‘you know’ you can suspect that a person is lying or at least doubt his own words.

The voice tone of people who are worried tend to be rather high. In this case a liar also feels worried as he/she is afraid of being caught. The research of American psychologist Paul Ekman has shown that the voice tone of the one who is lying tend to rise when he is speaking.

‘Lie-detector’

We all no the so called ‘lie-detector’, which can be often seen in various movies. It is a device, which records the changes of our vegetative nervous system and body ( breathing frequency, heart rate, skin temperature, perspiration etc.). Many of these changes can be noticed without this special device. A very skillful liar can pretend to breath normally and even swallow his saliva more frequently, but it would be too hard for him to act several reactions of his body. So if you want to catch a liar you have to watch not only his eyes or wait until he/she blushes , but to notice all his body signs that can tell you when a person is lying.

An investigator, who uses a lie-detector prepares questions, which he will give to the suspect. He doesn’t ask directly like ‘Did you steel?’, but only revise some circumstances that should be known to the suspect. He/she asks if there were 100Lt or 200Lt in the purse which was stolen. The one who knows the answer will react differently to such a question than the one who doesn’t. An ordinary man can also use this way of questioning. He should ask questions like ‘Are you unfaithful to me?’, but to ask questions like ‘Were you in the hotel with Petras?, ‘Were you two at your place?’, Were you in his flat?’. If suddenly her expression changes and she doesn’t feel as relaxed as she was after your first question and becomes really tense after the last one it is a sign that your suspicions can be true.

Tags: lie detection body language, lie detector, lie detector test, sing of a lie