How to tell if someone is lying

This is pretty interesting and provides a very different technique for detecting deception than what you might normally think of and what you may have seen in shows like "Lie to Me".

It also covers interviewing techniques.

article

• When questioned, deceptive people generally want to say as little as possible. Geiselman initially thought they would tell an elaborate story, but the vast majority give only the bare-bones. Studies with college students, as well as prisoners, show this. Geiselman's investigative interviewing techniques are designed to get people to talk.

• Although deceptive people do not say much, they tend to spontaneously give a justification for what little they are saying, without being prompted.

• They tend to repeat questions before answering them, perhaps to give themselves time to concoct an answer.

• They often monitor the listener's reaction to what they are saying. "They try to read you to see if you are buying their story," Geiselman said.

• They often initially slow down their speech because they have to create their story and monitor your reaction, and when they have it straight "will spew it out faster," Geiselman said. Truthful people are not bothered if they speak slowly, but deceptive people often think slowing their speech down may look suspicious. "Truthful people will not dramatically alter their speech rate within a single sentence," he said.

• They tend to use sentence fragments more frequently than truthful people; often, they will start an answer, back up and not complete the sentence.

• They are more likely to press their lips when asked a sensitive question and are more likely to play with their hair or engage in other "grooming" behaviors. Gesturing toward one's self with the hands tends to be a sign of deception; gesturing outwardly is not.

• Truthful people, if challenged about details, will often deny that they are lying and explain even more, while deceptive people generally will not provide more specifics.

• When asked a difficult question, truthful people will often look away because the question requires concentration, while dishonest people will look away only briefly, if at all, unless it is a question that should require intense concentration.

[Bo$$]

Originally Posted by twilyth

This is pretty interesting and provides a very different technique for detecting deception than what you might normally think of and what you may have seen in shows like "Lie to Me".

It also covers interviewing techniques.

article

thanks for that info

[HammerON]

I use the above technique as well as "reading" the eyes:
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies_eyes.php

I find this useful in my daily job duties - working with juvenile offenders

[caleb]

In 'Catcher in the rye' guy lied even tho he didn't want to and I have it too. Impossible to detect!

[Evolved]

Should watch a show called, "Lie to Me", on Fox.

It got canceled, but I thought it was a good show. It's all about this stuff.

[sniviler]

You can learn alot watching/listening to all of our US politicians.

[micropage7]

i remember one article that said one of spy test is how to avoid lie detector

[MRCL]

Lie to me is one of these shows that was based on actual techniques. Even the websites mentioned in the show exist. And the techniques work. On most people. Reading a persons reaction when being questioned is rather easy once you know what you have to look for; also when a person lies in front of a crowd i.e. She tells the crowd the performance of person A was great, but thinks the opposite.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Another if not better way would be waterboarding.

[xenocide]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Another if not better way would be waterboarding.

Except for with Waterboarding people have been willing to admit to anything to make it stop...

[scaminatrix]

I got a book called "Never Be Lied To Again" by David J. Lieberman (also comes in .pdf). If you can get hold of it, I recommend that. It's extremely thorough and teaches you how to spot a lie casually and forcefully, and also teaches you about battle tactics when faced with a liar. It's over 140 pages too.

I won't elaborate any more, if you're interested look it up.

EDIT: OT, but has anyone heard of the film Tim Roth was in before (what Lie To Me was probably based on/the reason Roth was cast for LTM), the film was called Liar? Now THAT'S a good film...

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by xenocide

Except for with Waterboarding people have been willing to admit to anything to make it stop...

So you pick somebody off the street, waterboard, make him/her admit something silly and you got yourself a liar. 100% success.

[Mr McC]

OP, I hope you are aware that by drawing this to our attention you are also forewarning any liars, who will undoubtedly be on their guard and keep tell-tale signs and involuntary gestures to a minimum now that they know what we, as honest people, are looking for.

It should also be borne in mind that such detection methods are by no means foolproof, given that certain gestures or behavioural traits might have a number of explanations: grooming may simply indicate nervousness when interacting with other people, rather than a lie.

[MRCL]

You can spot if a person is just nervous, or really lying.
Also, you would have to undergo decades of training to control your body language. Its really not that easy.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by MRCL

You can spot if a person is just nervous, or really lying.
Also, you would have to undergo decades of training to control your body language. Its really not that easy.

Or just be a psycho. They are great liars as they honestly don't give a damn about the murder they just committed or the punishment they could receive.

[Melvis]

I find this common knowledge

[Sasqui]

I've known one or two people I'd categorize as pathological liars. They could convince themselves that whatever they said was true, so (honestly, LOL), they didn't even think they were lying!!! It was almost impossible to distinguish truth from lies, unless you already knew the truth... messed up.

Originally Posted by Sasqui

I've known one or two people I'd categorize as pathological liars. They could convince themselves that whatever they said was true, so (honestly, LOL), they didn't even think they were lying!!! It was almost impossible to distinguish truth from lies, unless you already knew the truth... messed up.

That's where you use the interview techniques. Even if they have no emotional reactions, it still creates what they call a cognitive burden to try to create the details of a story and keep them consistent. And some things like the eye movements Hammeron linked to are probably involuntary. Even if the person is aware of these cues, it might be impossible to suppress them completely. Plus, suppression creates even more of a cognitive burden.

[erocker]

Originally Posted by MRCL

Lie to me is one of these shows that was based on actual techniques. Even the websites mentioned in the show exist. And the techniques work. On most people. Reading a persons reaction when being questioned is rather easy once you know what you have to look for; also when a person lies in front of a crowd i.e. She tells the crowd the performance of person A was great, but thinks the opposite.

Love that show, can't believe it's cancelled. Now I would be lying if I said that Americans had good taste in television shows. That's why great shows like Jersey Shore remain on the air and lame shows where you have to think and be somewhat intelligent to watch get cancelled.

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

They forgot to mention people who wink

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

I've known one or two people I'd categorize as pathological liars. They could convince themselves that whatever they said was true, so (honestly, LOL), they didn't even think they were lying!!! It was almost impossible to distinguish truth from lies, unless you already knew the truth... messed up.

I've known such people as well. Still know a few, they seem to honestly believe their own crap. The thing is, some people are actually impressed by their bullshit claims.

[jsfitz54]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

I've known such people as well. Still know a few, they seem to honestly believe their own crap. The thing is, some people are actually impressed by their bullshit claims.

So, if they believe in their own crap, how do you know they are dishonest? What are the tells?

[digibucc]

Originally Posted by jsfitz54

So, if they believe in their own crap, how do you know they are dishonest? What are the tells?

it's impossible to genuinely believe your own lies unless you are, quite literally, a psychopath.

anything short of being psychopathic and having absolutely zero empathy, and there will
be tells, as they will never truly, 100% believe their lies. it's mental illness that makes
the difference.

note: as dan said "seem" to believe, meaning it was possible to tell that it wasn't true by observation.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by jsfitz54

So, if they believe in their own crap, how do you know they are dishonest? What are the tells?

They have countless improbable stories, once a few don't check out you start to get a feeling for the amount of crap they share. It then turns into a story about a boy who cries wolf. Nobody believes those people anymore, even when they are telling the truth for once.

[jsfitz54]

I had a room mate in school that was a chronic liar and made stuff up. I caught him all the time and had to sit him down and explain that he needed to work on a few things. He was a major bull shittter. One of his tells was his stutter and that was a problem as well.