a Baseline'One of the most important indicators of dishonesty is changes inbehavior,' says Maureen O'Sullivan, PhD, a professor of psychology at theUniversity of San Francisco. 'You want to pay attention to someone who isgenerally anxious, but now looks calm. Or, someone who is generally calm butnow looks anxious.'The trick, explains O'Sullivan, is to gauge their behavior against abaseline. Is a person's behavior falling away from how they would normally act?If it is, that could mean that something is up.
Tip No. 1: Inconsistencies'When you want to know if someone is lying, look for inconsistencies inwhat they are saying,' says Newberry, who was a federal agent for 30 yearsand a police officer for five.Continue reading below...When the woman he was questioning said she ran and hid after hearinggunshots -- without looking -- Newberry saw the inconsistency immediately.'There was something that just didn't fit,' says Newberry. 'Sheheard gunshots but she didn't look? I knew that was inconsistent with how aperson would respond to a situation like that.'So when she wasn't paying attention, he banged on the table. She lookedright at him.'When a person hears a noise, it's a natural reaction to look towardit,' Newberry tells WebMD. 'I knew she heard those gunshots, looked inthe direction from which they came, saw the shooter, and then ran.'Sure enough, he was right.'Her story was just illogical,' says Newberry. 'And that's whatyou should look for when you're talking to someone who isn't being truthful.Are there inconsistencies that just don't fit?'
Unexpected'About 4% of people are accomplished liars and they can do it well,'says Newberry. 'But because there are no Pinocchio responses to a lie, youhave to catch them in it.'Sir Walter Scott put it best: 'Oh what a tangled web we weave, whenfirst we practice to deceive!' But how can you a catch a person in his ownweb of lies?'Watch them carefully,' says Newberry. 'And then when they don'texpect it, ask them one question that they are not prepared to answer to tripthem up.'
'Most people can't fake smile,' says O'Sullivan. 'The timingwill be wrong, it will be held too long, or it will be blended with otherthings. Maybe it will be a combination of an angry face with a smile; you cantell because their lips are smaller and less full than in a sinceresmile.'These fake emotions are a good indicator that something has gone afoul.
to Gut Reactions'People say, 'Oh, it was a gut reaction or women's intuition,' but whatI think they are picking up on are the deviations of true emotions,'O'Sullivan tells WebMD.While an average person might not know what it is he's seeing when he thinkssomeone isn't being honest and attribute his suspicion to instinct, a scientistwould be able to pinpoint it exactly -- which leads us to tip no. 6.
'The general rule is anything that a person does with their voice orther gesture that doesn't fit the words they are saying can indicate alie,' says Ekman. 'For example, this is going to sound amazing, but it is true. Sometimes when people are lying and saying, 'Yes, she's the one thattook the money,' they will without knowing it make a slight head shake 'no.'That's a gesture and it completely contradicts what they're saying inwords.'These contradictions, explains Ekman, can be between the voice and thewords, the gesture and the voice, the gesture and the words, or the face andthe words.'It's some aspect of demeanor that is contradicting another aspect,'Ekman tells WebMD.
When someone isn't making eye contact and that's against how theynormally act, it can mean they're not being honest,' says Jenn Berman, PhD,a psychologist in private practice. 'They look away, they're sweating, theylook uneasy ... anything that isn't normal and indicates anxiety.'
When Joe Schmo has a gut feeling, Paul Ekman, a renowned expert in liedetection, sees microexpressions.'A microexpression is a very brief expression, usually about a 25th of asecond, that is always a concealed emotion,' says Ekman, PhD, professoremeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School in SanFrancisco.So when a person is acting happy, but in actuality is really upset aboutsomething, for instance, his true emotion will be revealed in a subconsciousflash of anger on his face. Whether the concealed emotion is fear, anger,happiness, or jealousy, that feeling will appear on the face in the blink of aneye. The trick is to see it.'Almost everyone -- 99% of those we've tested in about 10,000 people --won't see them,' says Ekman. 'But it can be taught.'In fact, in less than an hour, the average person can learn to seemicroexpressions.
When you say to someone, 'Oh, where were you?' and they say, 'I went tothe store and I needed to get eggs and milk and sugar and I almost hit a dog soI had to go slow,' and on and on, they're giving you too much detail,' saysBerman.Too much detail could mean they've put a lot of thought into how they'regoing to get out of a situation and they've crafted a complicated lie as asolution.
Tip No. 10: Don't Ignore the Truth'It's more important to recognize when someone is telling the truth thantelling a lie because people can look like they're lying but be tellingtruth,' says Newberry.While it sounds confusing, finding the truth buried under a lie cansometimes help find the answer to an important question: Why is a personlying?
