| COLLECTIVE WIZDOM.COM Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Life |
Liar Liar--How to Tell When Someone Is Lying
March 18, 2008
By Sara Ott, Associate Editor and Featured Columnist
Continued from page 2
By studying large groups of participants, researchers have identified
certain general behaviors that liars are more likely to exhibit than
people telling the truth. Liars tend to move their arms, hands, and
fingers less. Liars also blink less than truthtellers do, and liars' voices
can become more tense or high-pitched.
Liars also speak with more pauses probably because of the added
mental effort they expend trying to remember what they've already said
and to keep their stories consistent.
Finally, liars have speech that is too "perfect". People are not tape
recorders. Our memories are imperfect. Normally, when people trying
to recall the truth, they make minor mistakes in memory -- they often
need to circle back, fill in details they have forgotten. But liars are
different. They sound like tape recorders. Every detail is remembered.
And every detail is recited in perfect chronological order. Liars make
fewer speech errors than those telling the truth, and they rarely
backtrack to fill in forgotten or incorrect details.
"Their stories are too good to be true," says Bella DePaulo of the
University of California, Santa Barbara, who has written several
reviews of the field of deception research.
Make Them Tell It Backwards
Most good liars, contrary to popular opinion, do look you in the eye.
Most good liars are better at reading us than we are at reading them.
They know that we expect them to shift their eyes. So they discipline
themselves over many years to look you dead in the eye. But
researchers from the University of Portsmouth claim they have found a
way to trip up even expert liars. They claim that the best way to spot a
lie is to make someone repeat his or her version of events in reverse
order.
In a £136,000 ($272,000) project, the researchers worked on the
theory that it takes more effort to make up a story than it does to tell
the truth. A subject asked to repeat a concocted series of events in
reverse order would be under too much of a strain, they claimed, and
would make mistakes.
Researchers asked 290 police officers to examine the interviews of 255
students who were given true and false details to use in their answers.
Traditional police interview methods were used in the study, and in
those that employed the reverse order tactics – described as “cognitive
load interviews” – the interviewer asked the suspects to recall a series
of events from the most recent backwards.
Officers were less likely to detect the liars when traditional methods
were used in the interviews but were more likely to detect lies when
the subjects were asked them to recall events in a reverse order.
The researchers believe that serial criminals are so well versed in
police interviews that they know how to dodge the psychological tricks.
But the reverse order method imposes an additional mental stress on
liars.
Professor Aldert Vrij, one of the researchers, said: “Those [police
officers] paying attention to visual cues proved significantly worse at
distinguishing liars from those telling the truth than those looking for
speech-related cues.
Here, in summary, and based on all the current research are the 5
Best Tell-tale signs of a liar:
1. Watch the Eyebrows. Eyebrows coming together and other micro-
expressions such as flutters in the facial muscles --tics-- indicate
possible deception. Since the involuntary muscles which produce
flutters and other micro-expressions are outside liars' control, train
your self to see when one part of the face does not match what is going
on in another part of the face or do not match the words being spoken.
Here's an example. Ever seen a person smile at you with their mouth
but their eyes are as cold as fish? That's a clue of insincerity. Or notice
that they stop moving their face and neck, staying still and unanimated.
That's a clue that they are trying to remember what they are saying. It
helps if you move around as they are talking, making it even harder for
them to manage their faces and match their voices are they also try to
remember what they are saying.
2. Listen to the Voice. Forget what you are seeing. Train yourself to
listen to pauses, changes in pitch as you watch what they are saying.
3. Tell It In Reverse. Interrupt someone you suspect is lying--can I get
you something to drink, water?"-- and ask them to tell you what
happened "at the end". Then casually, ask them, "and what happened
just before that?". In other words, try to get them to walk backwards,
telling the story in reverse. Watch their reaction. People telling the truth
won't get flustered. Liars do, because they will have trouble keeping
track of invented details, which they have memorized in forward order
only.
4. Forget the Eyes. The old adage that liars can't look you in the eyes is
false. Liars almost always look you in the eyes.
5. Watch Out for Perfect Speech. Liars are good talkers. They know
how to tell a story --perfectly-- each time. Ever notice how many
politicians can recite a speech the same way each time, never missing a
beat, even pausing for effect at the exact time, time after time. Not to
say they are all liars but the skill of repeating a story exactly the same
each time is one of the main ways to spot a liar.
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3
Related Links
Why Americans Read In Bathrooms-The
Hidden Epidemic of Constipation
Ten Signs He's Going to Leave You
My Heart Attack
Blood Pressure --What It Means
Arteries Are The Key to Good Health
How Much Is Too Much Salt
Bowel Movements Indicate Your Overall
Health
Why We Americans Read In Bathrooms
Why We Go Soft In the Middle
Why Americans Read In Bathrooms-The
Hidden Epidemic of Constipation
Ten Signs He's Going to Leave You
My Heart Attack
Blood Pressure --What It Means
Arteries Are The Key to Good Health
How Much Is Too Much Salt
Bowel Movements Indicate Your Overall
Health
Why We Americans Read In Bathrooms
Why We Go Soft In the Middle
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |