|
|
|
Back to Articles
10 Ways to Catch a Liar
Experts have 10 tips that can let you know if someone isn't
telling you the whole truth. |
J.J. Newberry was
a trained federal agent, skilled in the art of deception detection.
So when a witness to a shooting sat in front of him and tried to
tell him that when she heard gunshots she didn't look, she just ran
-- he knew she was lying.
How did Newberry reach this conclusion? The answer is by
recognizing telltale signs that a person isn't being honest, like
inconsistencies in a story, behavior that's different from a
person's norm, or too much detail in an explanation.
While using these signs to catch a liar takes extensive
training and practice, it's no longer only for authorities like
Newberry. Now, the average person can become adept at identifying
dishonesty, and it's not as hard as you might think. Experts tell
Web MD the top ten ways to let the truth be known.
Tip No. 1: Inconsistencies
"When you want to know if someone is lying, look for
inconsistencies in what they are saying," says Newberry, who was a
federal agent for 30 years and a police officer for five.
When the woman he was questioning said she ran and hid after
hearing gunshots -- without looking -- Newberry saw the
inconsistency immediately.
"There was something that just didn't fit," says Newberry.
"She heard gunshots but she didn't look? I knew that was
inconsistent with how a person would respond to a situation like
that."
So when she wasn't paying attention, he banged on the table.
She looked right at him.
"When a person hears a noise, it's a natural reaction to look
toward it," Newberry tells WebMD. "I knew she heard those gunshots,
looked in the direction from which they came, saw the shooter, and
then ran."
Sure enough, he was right.
"Her story was just illogical," says Newberry. "And that's
what you should look for when you're talking to someone who isn't
being truthful. Are there inconsistencies that just don't fit?"
Tip No. 2: Ask the Unexpected
"About 4% of people are accomplished liars and they can do it
well," says Newberry. "But because there are no Pinocchio responses
to a lie, you have to catch them in it."
Sir Walter Scott put it best: "Oh what a tangled web we weave,
when first we practice to deceive!" But how can you a catch a person
in his own web of lies?
"Watch them carefully," says Newberry. "And then when they
don't expect it, ask them one question that they are not prepared to
answer to trip them up."
|
Behavior Changes and Gut Reactions
Tip No. 3: Gauge Against a Baseline
"One of the most important indicators of
dishonesty is changes in behavior," says Maureen
O'Sullivan, PhD, a professor of psychology at the
University of San Francisco. "You want to pay attention
to someone who is generally anxious, but now looks calm.
Or, someone who is generally calm but now looks
anxious."
The trick, explains O'Sullivan, is to gauge their
behavior against a baseline. Is a person's behavior
falling away from how they would normally act? If it is,
that could mean that something is up.
Tip No. 4: Look for Insincere Emotions
"Most people can't fake smile," says O'Sullivan.
"The timing will be wrong, it will be held too long, or
it will be blended with other things. Maybe it will be a
combination of an angry face with a smile; you can tell
because their lips are smaller and less full than in a
sincere smile."
These fake emotions are a good indicator that
something has gone afoul.
Tip No. 5: Pay Attention to Gut Reactions
"People say, 'Oh, it was a gut reaction or women's
intuition,' but what I think they are picking up on are
the deviations of true emotions," O'Sullivan tells
WebMD.
While an average person might not know what it is
he's seeing when he thinks someone isn't being honest
and attribute his suspicion to instinct, a scientist
would be able to pinpoint it exactly -- which leads us
to tip no. 6.
Tip No. 6: Watch for Microexpressions
When Joe Schmo has a gut feeling, Paul
Ekman, a
renowned expert in lie detection, sees microexpressions.
"A microexpression is a very brief expression,
usually about a 25th of a second, that is always a
concealed emotion," says Ekman, PhD, professor emeritus
of psychology at the University of California Medical
School in San Francisco.
So when a person is acting happy, but in actuality
is really upset about something, for instance, his true
emotion will be revealed in a subconscious flash of
anger on his face. Whether the concealed emotion is
fear, anger, happiness, or jealousy, that feeling will
appear on the face in the blink of an eye. The trick is
to see it.
"Almost everyone -- 99% of those we've tested in
about 10,000 people -- won't see them," says Ekman. "But
it can be taught."
In fact, in less than an hour, the average person
can learn to see microexpressions |
|
Contradictions and Too Much Detail
Tip No. 7: Look for Contradictions
"The general rule is anything that a person does
with their voice or their gesture that doesn't fit the
words they are saying can indicate a lie," says
Ekman.
"For example, this is going to sound amazing, but it is
true. Sometimes when people are lying and saying, 'Yes,
she's the one that took the money,' they will without
knowing it make a slight head shake 'no.' That's a
gesture and it completely contradicts what they're
saying in words."
These contradictions, explains
Ekman, can be
between the voice and the words, the gesture and the
voice, the gesture and the words, or the face and the
words.
"It's some aspect of demeanor that is
contradicting another aspect," Ekman tells WebMD.
Tip No. 8: A Sense of Unease
"When someone isn't making eye contact and that's
against how they normally act, it can mean they're not
being honest," says Jenn Berman, PhD, a psychologist in
private practice. "They look away, they're sweating,
they look uneasy ... anything that isn't normal and
indicates anxiety."
Tip No. 9: Too Much Detail
"When you say to someone, 'Oh, where were you?'
and they say, 'I went to the store and I needed to get
eggs and milk and sugar and I almost hit a dog so I had
to go slow,' and on and on, they're giving you too much
detail," says Berman.
Too much detail could mean they've put a lot of
thought into how they're going to get out of a situation
and they've crafted a complicated lie as a solution.
Tip No. 10: Don't Ignore the Truth
"It's more important to recognize when someone is
telling the truth than telling a lie because people can
look like they're lying but be telling truth," says
Newberry.
While it sounds confusing, finding the truth
buried under a lie can sometimes help find the answer to
an important question: Why is a person lying?
These 10 truth tips, experts agree, all help
detect deception. What they don't do is tell you why a
person is lying and what the lie means.
"Microexpressions don't tell you the reason," says
Ekman. "They just tell you what the concealed emotion is
and that there is an emotion being concealed."
When you think someone is lying, you have to
either know the person well enough to understand why
they might lie, or be a people expert.
"You can see a
microexpression, but you have to
have more social-emotional intelligence on people to use
it accurately," says O'Sullivan. "You have to be a good
judge of people to understand what it means."
Extra Tip: Be Trusting
"In general we have a choice about which stance we
take in life," says Ekman. "If we take a suspicious
stance life is not going to be too pleasant, but we
won't get mislead very often. If we take a trusting
stance, life is going to be a lot more pleasant but
sometimes we are going to be taken in. As a parent or a
friend, you're much better off being trusting rather
than looking for lies all the time." |
Top
|
