How to Spot a Lie

You don't need a lie detector to catch a lier.

If you're tired of being lied to by your kids, employees, spouse or whomever you could go out and buy a lie detector. However, learning the tell-tale signs of liers everywhere is a much more effective, and subtle, way of catching the perpetrator mid lie.

Things You'll Need

• Focus
• Keen eyesight
• Awareness of body language
• Person you believe is lying

Instructions

1. Observe the body language of your subject (a.k.a. the alleged lier). Look for a lack of natural body language, such as hand movements. When telling lies people often touch their face and hold or scratch the backs of their neck. These movements are typically accompanied by a tense facial expression.

2. 

   Check to see if the person makes eye contact. Typically the person lying to you will not look you in the eye, but those who have less to lose and do not mind foregoing your future trust may look you straight in the eye when lying to you; loved ones will more often avoid eye contact.

3. Look for consistency between the person's words and their emotional state, if they are incongruous the person is likely lying. Detecting inconsistency requires paying special attention to the pace of the person's emotional reactions. When emotions appear forced, delayed or inconsistent the person may be lying. Also, when emotions seem to follow verbalization (a delayed smile after your younger sister announces she's eloping with the guy your whole family hates).

4. 

   Identify which portions of the person's face move when they express emotion. Genuine emotion (non-lying) extends beyond the mouth and involves your whole face, such as the eyes and forehead. If a person expresses emotion using only their mouth, they are either lying or a Botox recipient.

Tips & Warnings

• If a person gets defensive they were probably lying; after all, there's no need to get defensive if you're innocent.

• Look for liars to create a distance between themselves and their accuser.

Resources

• How to detect lies video.