Telltale Signs that Someone is Lying
Whether friendship or romantic, honesty is very important in any type of relationship. But how do you know when someone is telling you the truth, or covering up a lie? Body language could be one of the tools you use when getting to know someone. Body language tells us many things that people don't want us to know, and it may provide us with us all kinds of visual clues that someone is lying. If you want to know whether or not someone is telling you the truth, watch out for these 5 telltale signs that he or she is lying to you.
1. No eye contact or exaggerated eye contact
When someone is lying to you, they will unconsciously try to avoid eye contact. However, some people will consciously try to maintain eye contact in an effort to make their lies more believable. This kind of 'forced' eye contact is usually easy to spot as they may not be blinking as much as they usually would, or their eyes may appear wider than usual.
2. Changes in the colour of their skin
Redness around the face, neck, and throat is a common sign that someone is not telling you the truth. Unconsciously, they may be worrying that you will catch them in a lie, and this produces a similar physical response as the natural response to embarrassment (blushing).
3. Hands in front of their mouth
Talking with their hands or fingers in front of their mouth is sometimes an unconscious attempt to censor their lies. They may be trying to physically 'filter out' the parts they feel guilty about, and this shows in their body language.
4. Physically facing away from you
They may be looking straight at you, but is their body facing in your direction? When people are lying, they tend to sit or stand with their body facing away from the person they are lying to. If he or she is sat with their legs crossed, are their legs pointing toward you?
5. Perspiration
Of course, this could simply be a sign of nerves, especially if you are firing questions at them, but sweating can also be a sign that they are lying. If sweating is accompanied by changes in their breathing, this could be a sign that they are worried about being 'caught'.
Comments (13)
1)the signs should be interpreted in context (maybe someone is sweating because it is hot; the hand is touching the noes or mouth because they ahve a cold)
2) the signs could indicate other things: maybe the person is not looking at you and turned away from you because they don't like you. The fact there is no sympathy / chemistry does not imply someone needs to lie...
I usually gulp. My voice gets shakey. And it's in those times when I am NOT lying, but suspect very strongly that others suspect I am lying and I have no foolproof way to show I am not lying. Like when I have a large TV screen to sell, that works well, and has all kinds of plugs, because I am moving, and it's heavy (despite being a flat LCD tv). Anyone I tell it's only three months old, and works well, I fear they will think I am trying to pull the wool over their eyes, so I gulp and my voice gets shakey.
That said, there are two more surfire way of telling if someone is lying. In East German Kommunist torturer's training school, in the course Interrogation 238 they tell the students that if someone repeats a line almost or indeed verbatim, that is a lie that he and his subversive friends memorized, and swore to stick to. If an interrogant screams and gets angry, he is very likely to be innocent of the crime, but of course not of crimes we are not asking at the moment, so torture and execution is ALWAYS in order.
The other surefire way is that the interrogant withstands extreme pain that the interrogator subjects him into. In the old times this was not so apparent, because the pain induced by driving hot nails into soft tissues, or poking the eyes out, or making him or her hang upside down and lowering the interrogant into a pool of human waste, were simply not painful enough. Now with the wonderful invention of electroshock method, nobody can withold information for long. So this is another way of knowing if someone lied in the beginning of the interrogation sessions.