Contents
Half of people cannot recognize when someone is lying to them. Research conducted by Paul Ekman from the University of California showed that only every second person out of 12 volunteers, she was able to identify the impostor. The results of the experiment show that it is quite easy to fall prey to dishonesty. Are there techniques to identify a liar? How to protect yourself from hypocrisy?
- Correctly reading non-verbal cues is an effective way to identify a liar
- Unmasking an insincere person is possible by observing small movements of the facial muscles and eyeballs
- The unnatural tone and volume of the voice betray the person who is telling the untruth
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Why do people lie?
Providing untrue information or deliberately omitting the truth is something that has always been with a person. Distorting facts can be motivated in a variety of ways. It is often dictated by not very noble intentions – such as the desire to profit, get rich from someone else’s harm, or simply ruin the mood of another person. It also happens that a lie is born out of altruistic motives. It is quite common practice to conceal a painful truth to spare someone suffering.
Another type of insincerity is sneaking around, which could be described as cultural. These are fairy tales accepted as the norm by the majority of society, aimed at, for example, extending the idyll of childhood for the children. The myth of Saint Nicholas or the legend of storks throwing babies away are harmless deceptions.
Unfortunately, most lies are deliberate attacks on someone else’s well-being.
The closer the relationship between the led astray and the story writer, the greater the suffering is caused by lack of sincerity. How not to fall victim to a trickster? How do you know when someone is lying?
Know Your Enemy – How to Spot a Liar?
Lying and telling the facts are part of human nature. This does not mean, however, that they should be socially acceptable behavior. Confirmation of untruth is very harmful to the person who is the victim of fraud. Deep sadness or pain, a sense of injustice and a damaged emotional condition – these are just some of the negative effects of insincerity on the human psyche. That’s why it’s so important to be able to defend yourself.
Know your enemy – this sentence, which is a commandment of the art of war, conceals a remedy for many more down-to-earth problems. In order to successfully avoid attacks of insincerity, it is worth taking the trouble of learning to read the signals sent by the person who is giving false testimony. What are the characteristics of a liar?
See also: Mitomania – what is a pathological lie?
How to Know a Liar — Changes in Body Posture
The storyteller’s strongest weapon is the word. The person who testifies untruthfully will most likely focus on the verbal transmission of the statement, thus neglecting gestures. Meanwhile (as the most popular view says) non-verbal agreement constitutes as much as 97 percent. the message directed towards the interlocutor. This percentage has probably been somewhat excessive, but the assumption that non-verbal signals make up the greater part of the information contained in the statement seems to be true.
Knowing and properly interpreting your body language is one of the key elements that will allow you to unmask a mythomaniac. How to recognize a liar by gestures? There are several “show off” ways of arranging members as evidence of dishonesty. Here are the most popular of them:
- Shrug your shoulders when speaking on non-trivial topics or when answering a series of well-asked questions, it is the behavior of a liar.
- Performs a sudden backward movement the moment the slanderer is caught speaking untruth, it is a sign of subconscious surprise that someone has seen his intentions.
- Leaning towards the interlocutor it is sometimes an attempt to please another person and a desperate act of persuading them to believe in untrue words.
- Head down can be a sign of the unconscious remorse and shame that often accompany liars.
- Compulsive touching of the neck it is a mechanical defensive gesture for the right people who have something to hide.
- Tearing at the collar or loosening the tie – the nervous system of an untrue human is working at full capacity, causing the body temperature to rise. Uncontrolled gestures to help cool down can reveal a trickster.
- Covering your mouth with your hand it is a sign that the person subconsciously does not want or is afraid to talk about something.
- Twisting the fingers is a symptom of anxiety and nervousness. In this way, the person speaking untruthfully tries to relieve stress.
- Compulsive scratching of the skin can be caused by an alerted nervous system – dilated capillaries and raised blood pressure cause itching. Rubbing the skin of the face, head, neck or shoulders is often a lie.
Check: Confabulation – What is it? How much does it have to do with a lie?
How to recognize a liar – changes in facial expressions
How to know a liarThe mimicry of a person that is not true plays the role of a polygraph. By observing deviations from the usual facial expression, one can find a lack of sincerity. Which gestures show that a person is distorting the facts?
- Avoiding eye contact this is one of the most obvious behavior of an inexperienced trickster. Avoiding your gaze, covering or closing your eyes is a subconscious way of avoiding confrontation.
- Persistent gazing – different behavior is also a sign of lying. The mitoman, who maintains unnaturally long eye contact with the interlocutor, tries to persuade him that what he is saying is true.
- Rapid blinking can be a symptom of severe stress and a manifestation of fear of being exposed.
- Raised eyebrows and a furrowed forehead – the deliberate manifestation of surprise and anger is a manifestation of the preaching of untruth, proven by scientists from the University of British Columbia.
- Extended nostrils – the stress on the nervous system of the liar makes his body need more oxygen. Shortness of breath and raised nose pads can expose the impostor.
- Licking lips it is the result of diminished salivation when stressed by the individual. A dry throat forces the storyteller to wet her mouth more often than usual.
- Lips puckering and lip biting it is sometimes an expression of insincere feelings towards the interlocutor.
- Clenching of jaws as a result of tension. The nervous liar unconsciously closes his teeth too tightly, which is revealed by the gentle movements of the muscles around the ears.
How to recognize a liar – unnatural voice modulation
It is said that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Few people know that the voice – its tone, timbre and intensity – are also a perfect reflection of the feelings that torment the individual. The sounds that a person hears are transferred to the limbic system responsible for processing emotions. Thanks to the processes taking place in the body, representatives of the species Homo sapiens they are able to easily tell the well-being of another person just by their voice. This innate ability turns out to be very helpful in unmasking the impostor. How to know a lie by listening to the sound of someone else’s words?
- Too low or unnaturally high tone of voice – when raised, it indicates inner anger, lack of self-confidence or an attempt to cover up a fraud. The theatrical repression is proof that the owner of the tenor wants to be seen as someone other than he really is.
- Luscious, virtually childish tone of voice – no one is always happy. Someone who tries to convince the public otherwise by using a cute chatter every day is sure to be hiding something. The candy color of statements is usually a camouflage for a passive-aggressive individual and a master of manipulation in one.
- Dull, keyless voice – when someone suddenly starts talking in a non-emotional manner, it could be a sign of dishonesty. In this way, the liar tries to create as much distance as possible, build a wall around himself. Giving up intonation is an attempt to cover up emotions that may reveal that someone is committing perjury.
- A caricaturally low or too loud voice – speaking in an undertone is sometimes a manifestation of deeply hidden emotions and an attempt to attract attention to oneself. Screaming statements, on the other hand, are intended to convince others to believe the lie.
see also: Psychological tests – types, examples. Where to take psychological tests? [WE EXPLAIN]
How to recognize a liar? Signs that someone is deliberately wrong are generally very subtle. The key role in recognizing a liar is the knowledge of non-verbal signals of interpersonal communication and good old intuition. People have learned to ignore the soft voices of instinct, when this primal hunch usually turns out to be right. That is why it is sometimes worth listening to your innate sixth sense and adding a bit of perceptiveness supported by knowledge. Such a cocktail is the most effective weapon against cheaters.