Detect a Liar
There have been many television shows sprouting up, based around how to tell if someone is lying. Here are a number of ways to detect a liar.
Steps
- Do the handshake test. Have you ever wanted to know what a person thinks of you? You can learn a lot by just shaking their hand. When you reach out to shake someone’s hand, present them with your hand in a straight up and down manner. Make sure to allow them to twist your hand, however they like. Note what they do with your hand:
- If they shake your hand in an up and down manner, they see you as an equal.[citation needed]
- If they twist your palm up towards the ceiling or crush it, they see you as inferior.[citation needed]
- If they present you with their palm facing the ceiling, they see you as superior.[citation needed]
- Check the hand gestures. There are many other hand gestures that show that a person is either in distress or dishonest. Research has shown, most of these gestures are caused because of natural chemical reactions in the body.[citation needed]
- Watch for any gestures they make towards their face. Bill Clinton famously touched his nose 88 times, when he was being questioned during his Lewinsky testimony.[citation needed]
- Detect a liar based on checking hand and arm movements:
- Hands clenched = dishonesty or distress
- Hands on hips = restraint or anger, but honest
- Picking imaginary lint = dishonesty, distress, or disagreement
- Arms crossed = dishonesty, distress, or disagreement
- Hands in pockets = dishonesty, distress, or disagreement
- Palm displays = honesty
- Excessive palm displays = good liar, watch out
- Placing a purse or coffee between two people communicating = dishonesty, distress, or disagreement
- Rubbing the neck = dishonesty, distress, or disagreement
- Hand lightly on chin = interest and honest
- Check the eyes. You can learn a lot about a person by studying their eye movements. We, as human beings, are hard wired to look in certain directions, depending on what we are thinking about. This information is based off numerous research studies and specifically in a branch of psychology known as neuro-linguistic programming. This is what a person's eyes do when they are thinking:
- Up and to the right: Thinking about something that happened visually
- Sideways and to the right: Thinking about something they heard
- Down and to the right: Talking to themselves
- Up and to the left: Constructing or thinking up a lie visually
- Sideways and to the Left: Constructing or thinking up a lie orally
- Down and to the left: Thinking about something they did. An action they did perform.
- Look straight ahead with a haze: Thinking of something that happened visually.
- This is true for 75 to 85% of people in the world.[citation needed] What is great to know, is that the other 25 to 15% of people just perform in the opposite manner.[citation needed] So, to find out how a person's eyes work, ask them a few questions that you know will produce truthful answers and study the eyes. With this ability you are well on your way towards becoming a human lie detector.
- There are a few more ironclad ways to find out if someone is being deceitful or distress, by watching the eyes. When you meet someone for the first time, the first person to look away is submissive to the other. This is always going to be true.[citation needed]
- People who lie often will maintain uncomfortable eye contact. By uncomfortable, they will look you in the eyes for 70% or more of the conversation. 50% eye contact is considered normal.[citation needed]
- Finally, a person's blink rate will increase dramatically during long periods of lying. These are the main clues all experts agree on, concerning detecting a liar through eye analysis.
Other Ways of Detecting a Liar Through Body Language
- Check for strange behavior. When a person is going through long periods of lying they will start to act very oddly.[citation needed] Lying is very hard on a person. They will begin yawning compulsively (body starving for oxygen). They’ll begin having trouble swallowing (dry mouth). And at the worst, they will start moving in a very mechanical way rather than fluidly. Example: When reaching for a cup, they will seem to be moving in a series of steps like they have never reached for anything before.
- Look at jiggling of the feet. This is also a great sign of distress and dishonesty.[citation needed] People have a hard time controlling their leg movements unless they are paying attention to them exactly. It has been proven that feet will point toward that which they want.[citation needed] So if you are giving a speech and everyone’s feet are pointing towards the door, it’s time to switch topics.
- Look at facial flushing. If you are talking to someone and their face flushes they may be being dishonest or they are might also be distressed. (Note: There are some people who are just naturally shy and flush easily around people.)[citation needed]
- Pay attention when people seem to be giving you mixed signals. If a person's physical gestures don’t match with their words, trust the body language to help you detect a liar.
