How to Tell When Someone is Lying

One you missed under the How to Tell When Someone is Lying/b>:

They say they truly enjoy soccer

What a load of crap. Most of the “signs” are simply related to nervousness and could have multiple causes. Accomplished liars are well able to mask these simple “signs”. Proper scientific tests have shown these sorts of indicators have negligible effect on the ability to detect lies.

I think he means “puts their hand on their heart” not “outs their hand…”.

subconscious.. not unconscious..
and I agree with Michael

A guy is hitting on you and says he isn’t interested in sex. Now, that’s a lie whatever sex you are!

Believing in these oversimplified ‘tells’ will just make you appear presumptuous and unprofessional – why not just respect people and hear them out – and THEN check their stories. Everybody’s innocent until they’re proven guilty, after all. And only hard evidence counts, not even lie detectors.

I am always torn between being angry about ignorance and being amused ’cause it’s actually very humorous. Anyhow, I have Tourette syndrome… I blink a LOT, turn my head in odd ways, have trouble focusing visually on any one thing unless it’s a “down time”, and I move my shoulders and arms and fingers, etc. in random/odd ways all the time… As you can imagine, some people think back on reading things like this that say liars are jittery, constantly moving, do not keep eye contact, etc… Yeah, so I’m such a liar. I don’t look you in the eye very much, I move ALL the time, I get hyper. I find it difficult to “confront the accuser”, so to speak, because I have panic attacks, don’t like crowds, strangers, etc….
Because of my ticks, my facial expression doesn’t usually match up with my verbally expressed feelings. I over-explain myself about everything. This isn’t because I’m lying; rather, it is because I have OCD and feel that EVERY LITTLE TINY INSIGNIFICANT detail is of the highest importance to the whole story…. It is not my fault that you don’t get the importance that my keyboard has 127 buttons on it, that there were exactly 720 WHOLE tiles in the office at my last job, with approx. 47 partial tiles… I find it relavent, somehow, that there
Um. I just realized that I was going on too much. This doesn’t happen that often. Um. We are each responsible for comparing our personal truths with the facts of reality.

If they are accomplished liars, there are signs but they are often hard to read. People who are not used to lying may be easy to read, body language, lack of eye contact, etc. I think it’s more about instinct, what my instincts or gut feelings are telling me. However, most people who lie, eventually get caught, usually by making a mistake on the original lie they told. Just a personal hunch!

this is bull i lie all the time and hardly ever get caught:)

Eyes and Body Language are what I follow

Great poem about lying!

Also, liars can’t remember what they said. They can’t keep up with their made up stories! Nice job.

These signs can often be valid indicators but they are not totally reliable and could lead to mislabeling. A shy person may avoid eye contact even if he is not a liar because he is saddened & humiliated at being wrongly accused. There are many liars who become emotionally or physically violent when challenged, hoping to intimidate their accuser and make them stop asking questions. Yet a person who is telling the truth might also become angry.

Some liars retain their cool when accused–especially if they are in a position where they cannot be punished for lying. Yet an innocent person might do the same if they are trying to be rational instead of emotional. An innocent person may use sarcasm to demonstrate that the accusation is ridiculous or hypocritical. There are so many exceptions to these rules–the real signs of lying are often more subtle and vary by personality type.

Many pathological liars and other psychopaths do not feel guilty or nervous about lying and thus show no sign of discomfort. They lie with great confidence because they are also lying to themselves. These people can only see what they want to see… they are extremely self-deluded and truly want to believe the lies they tell. When they believe their own lies, so do others. They think they can never be wrong just so long as they refuse to admit it. It’s hard for a normal person to comprehend that kind of self-deception, but ironically some of the very worst sociopaths are the most convincing liars.

Half of these indicators are probably valid for any given person… the problem is that the valid indicators vary from person to person. Everyone has lied a few times but the best way to recognize a compulsive liar is by observing a long term pattern of deceptive behavior. This is the one thing a compulsive liar cannot control.

I find it intriguing ..whether or not I completely agree or not with the information.

Interesting… I won’t lie and pretend that I totally agree. I’ve known liars who were SO impossible to catch. I think someone might have to have a touch of honesty in them to be caught lying

Many con men and or women can look someone straight in the face, not blink an eye or rub their throat and lie through their teeth doing it. Yes you can tell by the eyes, but not in all cases. I’d love to know where you got your research for the article you wrote?

Some people are great liars. When my son was seven, he already had the talent. A real tale weaver! A real pain ! Nice tips.

Hey! I really liked this article , cause liers are every where and they are surrounding us almost of the time…even we!our selves! some times we lie to our own selves! like we do things and we predict that we are very interested about it while we don’t! for example sometimes some one study hard to be a doctor while in the origin he’s born to be a real artist!
At last alwayz remember that life has two rules:
Rule No 1: Never Quit
Rule No2: Always remember rule No1

Again thank you for the nice article and God Bless you!

Isn’t all this “psychology” stuff just making people more paranoid?When I talk to people,I get a gut feeling,and I check them out if I’m not happy with that feeling.As ehem ..primates,we’ve been living in some form of social soup for maybe millions of years.What’s disappointing about articles like these is that they’re just boring retreads.There may be some truth in them but who cares!It’s been said by some nerd before and it’s hardly earthshaking!The most instructive,entertaining and heartening thing about them are the comments.

Truly helpful. I swear, im not lying!

A theory like yours is already extreme in its posturing.

Evidently, people who are unfamiliar with the dialect or the language, or who are uncomfortable with you, or who think that you are a liar will be judged according to your test as being liars.

Moreover, if I punch a hole in your theory, I am innocent.

It’s interesting. I’ll tell my friend about this. She doubts her husband is a bisexual on the online service BILoves, but she is not sure. Maybe she can try the above methods.lol

It’s EZ the tell if a woman is lying cause her lips are moving.

’shopped

I WORK WITH SOMEONE THATS LIES ABOUT SOME OF THE STUPIDEST THINGS LIKE BEING MARRIED.IF YOU ARE MARRIED YOUR CO-WORKERS WOULD SEE YOUR”HUSBAND” AS SHE ALWAYS SAY.WE HAVE ALL WORK WITH THIS GIRL FOR 2 YEARS NOW AND NOBODY HAS SEEN THIS MAN.WE HAVE SEEN EVERYONE ELSE’S HUSBAND’S OR BOYFRIEND’S BUT NOT HERS.SHE SAY HE WORKS OUT OF TOWN ALOT THAT HE IS A TRUCK DRIVER.BUT THE STORIES SHE TELL DO NOT ADD UP

How can you tell if someone is lying or telling the truth, if you do not know what the persons baseline behaviour is?

It is a very good article but not all liars will avoid eye contact and some honest people will sometimes avoid eye contact when you ask them to remember something. I know that I look away when i am trying to remember something because it helps me remember. Also if you are a very timi person you might look away from the accuser because it helps you feel more comfortable. But anyways if you do not trust a person to tell the truth it is only because you yourself tell lies and you cannot trust others to be honest simply because you beleive that other people are just like you. And if we do beleive lies it is not because you want to believe the person who is lying to you but because you want to beleive that there are actually honestpeople in this world

I heard somewhere that if a you ask a suspected liar to repeat a story backwoards, they have a hard time, and youcan tell they are lying.