4/21/10

Liar Liar pants on fire


I came across this post on WWW, found it interesting and wanted to share it with you(s) :

All of us lie, and all of us get lied to, its a fact of life. But there are always those times when you are not sure and but you would LOVE to find out ;)

Before I continue, let me say this; In most situations I say absolutely nothing when I think that I am being lied to. Primarily because it just isn't worth the fight, secondly because I usually know the reason why the person is lying to me and thirdly, its better to keep that knowledge to yourself so that you can reveal it (usually indirectly) at the perfect moment so that the person knows not to mess with you in the future.
Anyway, below are some points I pulled from an article that describes how to detect a liar
BODY LANGUAGE

• A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact.

• Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.

EMOTIONAL GESTURES...

• The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, then stops suddenly.

• Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: Someone says "I love it!" when receiving a gift, and then smile after making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is made.

• Gestures/expressions don’t match the verbal statement, such as frowning when saying “I love you.” • Expressions are limited to mouth movements when someone is faking emotions (like happy, surprised, sad, awe, )instead of the whole face. For example; when someone smiles naturally their whole face is involved: jaw/cheek movement, eyes and forehead push down, etc.

INTERACTION AND REACTIONS

• A guilty person gets defensive. An innocent person will often go on the offensive.

• A liar is uncomfortable facing his questioner/accuser and may turn his head or body away.


VERBAL CONTEXT AND CONTENT

• A liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, “Did you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”

•A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “ I didn't do it” instead of “I did not do it” • Liars sometimes avoid "lying" by not making direct statements. They imply answers instead of denying something directly.

• The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you... they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation.

• A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more than the rest of the words in a statement.

• Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be off. In other words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than emphasized.

BODY LANGUAGE

• If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous subject.

• Using humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.

Check out this article on Eye Movement and Lying

FINAL NOTES...

Obviously, just because someone exhibits one or more of these signs does not make them a liar. The above behaviors should be compared to a persons base (normal) behavior whenever possible.
This leads me to ask, what's the worst lie someone told YOU??
How do YOU determine if someone is bullshitting you??

Xo
Neb

2 comments:

TheDeF said...

"The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you... they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation.".......seriously, i used to do this all the time when i was shuckin some jive to my parents. Eh, worked though.

MM said...

I'm trying to think of a lie that someone has ever told me, but I can't really think of anything. Or maybe they were phenomenal liars... I do know that if I ever catch someone, who is close to me, lie to me about whatever it may be, I would be very pissed off and maybe even cut them off. Or no, not maybe, I'm sure I would. If it's just a random somebody than I wouldn't care and I would not even bother mentioning it, but I sure will keep it in my mind when I'm talking to that person.