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• Classic-Fiction

Investigations have found that the average person has a 40 to 60 percent chance of rumbling one, and professional lie hunters fare no better. And for each cliché about how liars act—they scratch their nose, fidget, their eyes roam, they look up and to the right—there is zero evidence.

Might as well flip a coin? Not quite.

Although each liar lies in his own way, all suffer three pressures:

emotional (nerves, excitement)

cerebral (they have to keep track)

behavioral (they try not to fidget, stutter, etc.)

These pressures produce clues that, if many appear together, may well tell a lie.

NON-VERBAL CLUES

Eyes don’t complete the smile

Decreased movement, gestures, blinking (the extra load on

a liar’s mind stills his body)

Seems uncooperative or uninvolved

VOCAL CLUES

Voice sounds tense, negative, its pitch is slightly higher than normal

VERBAL CLUES

Stories sound implausible, rehearsed

Statements are short on details, especially visual, sensual, spatial, or temporal (the liar is unlikely to observe a place was cold, smelly, dark, etc.)

Language is less immediate, more uncertain and negative, with passive clauses and indirect statements (e.g., “the man told me he felt ill” rather than “the man said, ‘I’m going to vomit’ ”)

Most reliable are verbal and vocal clues. Of course, abnormal behavior will be apparent only if you know what normal is (another reason to prioritize face-to-face talk).

And be warned: Adroit, practiced liars doctor the facts to feel like truths they can believe in. All tests agree that the best liars are sales professionals. But for them, selling the hell out of a product they don’t rate isn’t insincere but a sign of devotion—so by Bernard Williams’s measure, aren’t they good, honest workers?

Whereas second-rate liars overcomplicate things, going out of their way to avoid fabrication, preferring ambiguity to committing to a yes or no. They omit information, claim a faulty memory, don’t answer questions, meet allegations with generalizations or subjective truths, heap up irrelevant details, as if to hide untruth in a thicket of unrelated truth, and garnish statements with groves of excess verbiage. They answer, as did one-time U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig:

That’s not a lie, it’s a terminological inexactitude.

GUIDELINES FOR SNARING LIARS (OR, ALTERNATIVELY, NOT GETTING CAUGHT)

We’re prejudiced in favor of words that confirm our expectations.

(Say what they want to hear; they will deceive themselves.)

We’re biased to believe those we find attractive, friendly, and confident.

(We believe what we like to see: smile, meet their eye, dress well.)

The higher the stakes, the likelier they will seem stressed or rehearsed.

(Psych yourself down by shrinking the significance of the lie, and keep it simple, precise, and no quibbling.)

Falsification is harder than omission, so make them account for themselves.

(The best liars believe what they say. Stick to the truth, edited.)

Look for liars and you’ll be misled by expectations. Instead, sieve behavior for indications someone may be lying. Does he look tense? Is he thinking hard? Playing for time?

(Don’t overcontrol behavior: Fidgeting and gestures are normal.)

Don’t rush to conclusions about whether odd behavior means someone’s lying: Instead, seek explanations for any mismatch between what he says and how he acts.

(Imply alternative reasons why you might seem under pressure.)

Act suspicious and you put the liar on guard.

(Assume everyone is suspicious; act as if they’ve every faith in you.)

Increase the cognitive load: Ask him to repeat things, darting back and forth in sequence.

(Get the other person talking. Can you tell your story in any order?)

As he tells his story again, does his tone or style alter, the level of detail drop off?

(Lie as if reliving it, keeping immediacy and details consistent.)

Is he going out of his way to tell you something you didn’t ask?