Like many things, though, detecting a lie often comes down to one thing—trusting your instincts. By knowing what signs might accurately detect a lie and learning how to heed your own gut reactions, you may be able to become better at spotting falsehoods.
Psychologists have utilized research on body language and deception to help members of law enforcement distinguish between the truth and lies. Researchers at UCLA conducted studies on the subject in addition to analyzing 60 studies on deception in order to develop recommendations and training for law enforcement.
The results of their research were published in the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry. A few of the potential red flags the researchers identified that might indicate that people are deceptive include:.
Lead researcher R. Edward Geiselman suggests that while detecting deception is never easy, quality training can improve a person's ability to detect lies:. Quick, inadequate training sessions lead people to over-analyze and to do worse than if they go with their gut reactions. If you suspect that someone might not be telling the truth, there are a few strategies you can use that might help distinguish fact from fiction.
While body language cues can sometimes hint at deception, research suggests that many expected behaviors are not always associated with lying. Researcher Howard Ehrlichman, a psychologist who has been studying eye movements since the s, has found that eye movements do not signify lying at all. In fact, he suggests that shifting eyes mean that a person is thinking, or more precisely, that he or she is accessing their long-term memory.
Other studies have shown that while individual signals and behaviors are useful indicators of deception, some of the ones most often linked to lying such as eye movements are among the worst predictors.
One meta-analysis found that while people do often rely on valid cues for detecting lies, the problem might lie with the weakness of these cues as deception indicators in the first place. Some of the most accurate deception cues that people do pay attention to include:.
The lesson here is that while body language may be helpful, it is important to pay attention to the right signals. However, some experts suggest that relying too heavily on certain signals may impair the ability to detect lies. Lie detection can be seen as a passive process. Some research has suggested that asking people to report their stories in reverse order rather than chronological order can increase the accuracy of lie detection.
Verbal and non-verbal cues that distinguish between lying and truth-telling may become more apparent as cognitive load increases. Lying is more mentally taxing than telling the truth. If you add even more cognitive complexity, behavioral cues may become more apparent. Not only is telling a lie more cognitively demanding, but liars typically exert much more mental energy toward monitoring their behaviors and evaluating the responses of others.
They are concerned with their credibility and ensuring that other people believe their stories. All this takes a considerable amount of effort, so if you throw in a difficult task like relating their story in reverse order , cracks in the story and other behavioral indicators might become easier to spot. In one study, 80 mock suspects either told the truth or lied about a staged event. Some of the individuals were asked to report their stories in reverse order while others simply told their stories in chronological order.
The researchers found that the reverse order interviews revealed more behavioral clues to deception. In a second experiment, 55 police officers watched taped interviews from the first experiment and were asked to determine who was lying and who was not.
The investigation revealed that law enforcement officers were better at detecting lies in the reverse order interviews than they were in the chronological interviews. Your immediate gut reactions might be more accurate than any conscious lie detection you might attempt. In one study, researchers had 72 participants watch videos of interviews with mock crime suspects. But the researchers also utilized implicit behavioral reaction time tests to assess the participants' more automatic and unconscious responses to the suspects.
What they discovered was that the subjects were more likely to unconsciously associate words like "dishonest" and "deceitful" with the suspects that were actually lying. Repetitive liars can sometimes feel so much pressure that their memory is unreliable.
They try to relieve that pressure by saying something that will make the situation work. For that person, what was just said is what they want to believe.
The person lying may so badly want the lie to be the truth that the lie becomes his or her actual truth. People who lie repeatedly often have a desire to be in control.
When the truth of a situation doesn't agree with such control, they produce a lie that does conform to the narrative they desire. Such people may also worry they won't be respected if the truth can leave them looking poorly. Instead, they offer a lie that casts them in a good light, but they aren't able to see that in most cases that what they offered has no basis in reality. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript.
Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser. You are logged in. Portability Licensing Conversion Therapy Bans. What we say and do has an effect on others and even well-intended lies are a form of manipulation.
A Matter of Trust. Lying creates an uncomfortable situation because we expect others to treat us honorably and tell the truth. We expect not to be lied to and when the situation occurs, we lose faith and trust in the other person.
There are some people typically those with certain personality disorders who lie frequently and do not care about the effects of their lies. This type of person also typically does not care about the treatment he receives from other people. Most people, however, care how others treat them and knowing they were lied to can be a breach of trust, depending on the gravity of the lie. Our perception can affect our acceptance of lying and the consequences of the lie itself.
For example, many people believe politicians lie. Since it is expected, the lies are often accepted. The same applies to used-car salespersons. Few people are affected by the breach of trust that might occur when these people lie and life goes on, with little upset. Compulsive and Pathological Lying A more serious problem with lies occurs when lying becomes compulsive or pathological.
A compulsive liar uses lies as a way of life. Lying for any situation or no reason takes the place of honesty.
A compulsive liar lies because it serves the person in some odd way and he takes comfort in lies. Compulsive lying is often accompanied by other personality disorders like narcissism.
While the person delving into compulsive lies feels secure, the lies often hurt and damage relationships, family and friends. Compulsive lying is an addiction and becomes difficult to stop once it has become a way of life. A pathological liar lies constantly to get what he wants, caring little for who gets hurt along the way.
Considered a coping mechanism, pathological liars often exhibit other personality disorders. Words that describe a pathological liar are deceptive, manipulative and selfish.
Pathological liars actually believe their own lies, but may change the story from telling to telling. Others realize the lie, but the liar often does not and has no remorse. She will often make up things as she goes and seldom plans out a lie. Once told, she will defend the lie and rarely admit that she told a lie. The lies of a pathological liar can be absurd such as saying she was in the park people-watching and saw a crime take place, when in reality she was shopping with a friend.
Dealing with a compulsive or pathological liar is enough to try the patience of loved ones. The compulsive lying is a habit and pathological lying is an identity disorder. The clues may be body language, facial expressions or what the person actually says. Someone telling a fib often perspires or seems nervous and jittery.
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