Learning to spot a lie is an important skill that can help you avoid uncertainty and people taking advantage of you.
When a person lies, they often change their body language and speech patterns. One way to detect this is to watch how they respond when you ask straightforward questions.
If someone constantly avoids eye contact during a conversation, it could be an indicator that they’re lying, suggests research. In a series of experiments, researchers found that liars who were looking away frequently got caught more often than those who maintained strong eye contact.
That doesn’t mean that you should automatically assume a person is lying, however. Instead, establish a baseline for how they act during normal conversations.
That will help you spot if they start using more than one cue to hide their dishonesty, notes Birkel and Spinelli. It’s also important to consider how they might be feeling about the situation.
When people lie, they sometimes say too little or leave out important details in their story. If someone you know is doing this, it may be a sign that they're lying.
If they're telling you a story about their day, for example, they might forget that their coffee shop was closed when they went in. Or they might say that they spent the night with their ex-girlfriend, when in reality, they were at home watching TV and eating dinner.
Luckily, there are many signs that people might be lying to you. While some of them, like fidgeting and looking away, don't mean anything at all, others might indicate that they're trying to hide something from you.
When a liar repeats their story before they answer your question, it's a sign that they're trying to create space for their lie. It takes much more brain power to think of a lie than it does to remember the truth, so a liar may want to buy them some time to come up with their most convincing story.
Another sign that someone is lying is when they use unusually long pauses before answering your questions. This is a way to create space for their story and give them time to think of more convincing details, says Schweitzer.
It's also a sign that they're nervous about telling their lie. This nervousness causes their heart rate and blood flow to change. Their breathing gets heavier, and they might take deep breaths to slow down their nervousness or to get the blood flowing again.
Whether they’re telling little lies to spare feelings or full-on toxic whoppers, everyone lies at some point. Knowing when to trust someone and when to call them out for lying can be a valuable skill.
Luckily, there are a number of body language queues and other signs that can help you decipher whether someone is telling the truth or not. Experts note that lying doesn’t always mean breaking a promise or treating the other person unfairly.
If you notice a sudden shift from their normal speech patterns or mannerisms, it could be a sign that they’re dishonest. It’s also a good idea to compare their behavior to a baseline.
One of the quickest ways to tell if someone is lying is to notice how they change their story. For example, if they start out telling you that they were at the restaurant when in fact they weren't, this is a good sign they aren't telling the truth.
People lie for a variety of reasons, from protecting their own or another's feelings to trying to avoid repercussions to gain a competitive advantage. Liars may also use deceptive tactics to hide their true intentions and try to make themselves appear trustworthy.