How to Identify a Liar

There has been some interesting research relating to spotting liars. More recent research is stating it is not good enough to look at body language alone using the human eye.

Paul Ekman who is considered to be the world's leader in facial expression and body language has developed a technique to read micro expressions. These cannot be faked and occur as soon as the thought crosses someone's mind.

Neuro Linguistic Programming talks of identifying and monitoring the direction your eyes move to construct or recall memory. Eg tell the truth or lie.

More recently the first AI development is occurring looking at a range of language patterns and anomalies which was found to be able to identify up to 80% of the perpetrators who had committed burgalaries.

However, we as normal every day people may not have access to this.

As a Recruiter for 11 years interviewing people and a Debt Collector for many years before this hearing the words "I'll pay next week" I have been studying in depth what makes people lie and how you could possible identify a liar.

Here are a few basic tips to help.

1. Get your baseline. You need to know when the person is telling the truth in order to understand when they are not. How do they usually talk/ sit? If someone is right handed of left handed can indicate where their eye movement may be when telling the truth and lying. The old fashioned "arms crossed so hiding something" is outdated. That person may just sit like that or may be cold! Ask questions which they will tell the truth to and obtain a control/ baseline.
2. Look out for multiple "tells" A "tell" is an action which may indicate a deviation from the truth. For example toe movement may be an indication of someone being uncomfortable due to lying. However they may just have an itchy foot!! If there are 2 or more "tells" shown within 5-20 seconds of each other, this may be indicative of lie.
3. Look at all potential possibilities. Use a combination of micro expressions/ eye movement/ body language and language pattern or audio tonal inflections. This will give you a much better 360 degree indication of what is happening.
4. Think about why they are showing a "tell" Could there be any other possible reason for a response which might indicate a lie. Eg. Nervousness/ medical condition, other reasons.

In conclusion, you really do need to study to have a full understanding of who is lying and when. This can take a lot of practice and reading/ studying. However the results can be rewarding.

Successful Consultants Limited provide a range of consultancy services including career/ interview/ CV coaching and group hires/ assessment of people for growing companies.