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Changing How We Relate to Each Other in the Face of Business

Signs of Deception

Communications can be a complex process. Whether it’s business or everyday interactions, how do you know with absolute certainly a person is speaking with conviction; that they believe in what they are telling you and not just what you want to hear. Are you under the impression that if someone speaks with conviction they are totally believe what they are saying?

It is interesting to note that while speaking, the average person produces around 75-100 verbal and nonverbal cues per second. Unfortunately the average person is capable of only processing around 7 bits of information at one time, so it’s no wonder so many of us can be deceived! If you don’t know what to look for, your attention will be focused on others parts of the communication process, ones that may not be to your benefit.

The act of lying creates a discomfort in a person’s neurology. They are in a conflict between what they know is true and what they are speaking. This conflict produces unconscious responses and stresses in the body

Body Language of Lies – Some things you can watch for:

• Unexpected or unwarranted hostility
• Unmerited humor or distractions
• Evasiveness of direct questions
• Resistance to fully participate in the conversation
• Eye contact is minimized
• The person keeps their distance, turning or leaning away
• Increased discomfort and anxiety, wringing of the hands or pacing
• Lip licking and hard swallowing (dry throat)
• Scratching or touching of nose or ear
• Physical expression becomes stiff, arm and hand movements are minimized
• Hand, arm and leg movement are toward their own body as the liar takes up less space
• Hands touch their face, throat & mouth with greater frequency
• A change of topic brings a change in posture or sudden response
• Hands, legs, or objects put in front of body to form a barrier, such as folding arms

• Verbal Responses

• May take longer before the person starts answering
• The person may answer to quickly or before the question is completed
• The liar asks the other person to repeat the question or they repeat it themselves
• Overly polite or apologetic dialog
• Persistent complaints
• Unnatural silence
• 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 often add unnecessary details to seem more convincing
• The guilty are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation.
• Speech patterns often become monotonous
• Words may be garbled or spoken softly, becoming muddled.
• The speaker tends to verbally and emotionally distance themselves from the events

When someone lies, neurologically their emotional response must change, as the neurology must know how to differentiate between what is believed to be true and what is false. This also may bring the follow signals

 Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, then stops suddenly.

 Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Someone says "You are doing a great job" and then smiles after making that statement, rather than at the same time the statement is made.

 Gestures/expressions don’t match the verbal statement, such as frowning when saying “You are doing great”

 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.

Micro Expressions

Most of us are in our own heads; our awareness is on our own needs and unless we have been trained and are in the right frame of mind, we miss the signals other people send. Many of these signals are micro expressions, momentary involuntary facial expression people unconsciously display when hiding emotions. These micro-expressions can appear and disappear in a fraction of a second. In other words micro-expressions occur so quickly, that most people don't even notice them. Thus they are easily overlooked unless one is trained or has equipment to record and analyze the response.

Micro-expression are caused by involuntary movements in facial muscles and can be virtually impossible to control. They are provoked by the seven core emotions driving all behaviors, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, contempt and happiness

Most people get a sense of when someone is telling the truth or not, but either don’t trust their own abilities or are easily influenced to believe what others are saying. Mastery takes practice and most people have other priorities in their lives.

The Principles of Lie Detection

Keep in mind, if you want to become effect at detecting lies, you will want to

• Establish a baseline behavior in your subject –
• Recognize the related patterns of deception (such as listed above)
• Keep the listener off balance and force them to make either or choices that will confirm they are telling the truth or fabricating deception

For more information on group training, call Designed Thinking at 866-718-9995

Last Update: July 18, 2011

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