Introduction

“Are you kidding me?”

Have you ever felt like someone isn’t saying the whole truth, or is flat out lying to you? We all have and it sucks. So how do we prevent this?

Well there is no way of preventing someone from lying, but you can at least figure out if they are. In this article we will be discussing tips and tricks to catch a liar red-handed.

#1 Eye Contact

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It’s natural to look away from someone when uncomfortable or nervous, so someone who’s lying may refuse to look you in the eye, or glance away when the lie comes up. However, this isn’t a sure fire way to tell if someone is lying. Usually person may stare at you more intently instead.

This is because eye contact is known to highlight someone’s confidence. It also may make them feel that they are being more sincere.

If the person the person keeps looking from side to side that could be another indication that someone may be lying. By looking from side to side, it helps the liar think. This is due to the fact that it can help people’s two brain hemispheres communicate better.

This allows you to remember facts or come up with new ideas. Without getting into too much detail, the nerve within your brain that is in the middle of the two hemispheres, is stimulated by eye movement. So if someone is glancing around- well, maybe their hiding something.

#2 What They Are Saying

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When someone tells you a story, it is natural to over exaggerated certain details for fun or add a bit here and there to make a tall tale. But sometimes this can lead to flat out lying about an event. So how can you tell if what someone is saying makes sense?

Listen! Usually when lying people can do two things with the story they’re telling which are opposites from each other. The first way is to include a bunch of little details that nobody would remember. The second way is to ‘forget’ a bunch of details that anybody could remember. In this section, we’ll use sample conversations to get an idea of how to catch someone not telling the whole truth.

They Remember Too Much

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Person A: “ Hey, where were you yesterday? Did you get sick or something? You don’t normally get sick though, so like is everything good?”

Person B: “ No! It was like so bad, you don’t even understand. I was hacking up a lung and my dog was getting all scared and stuff.

But like, lowkey, it was kinda nice ‘cause my mom made the best juk ever! You know like the rice porridge, so good! But it was so bad my mom forgot to call me in sick! Like OMG!”

Person A: “Oh, okay, I guess.”

So obviously if this person was really as sick as they said, they probably wouldn’t remember whether or not their mom called them in sick. Even though they said it sucked they also said it was nice, so obviously there is some contradicting going on. But what really seals this person’s fate is the fact that they went over the top with their explanation Basically, if someone seems to be too worried about minor details in their story, then they might be lying.

They Don’t Remember Enough

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We can use the same conversation starter for this so it isn’t too confusing.

Person A: “ Hey, where were you yesterday? Did you get sick or something? You don’t normally get sick though, so like is everything good?”

Person B: “Oh, yeah… that sucked but honestly I don’t really think it was all that bad… I dunno I was in bed the entire time.”

Person A: “Oh, okay, I guess.”

Inthis instance the person couldn’t give their friend a definite answer on whether or not their sickness was all that bad, but they do acknowledge it sucked earlier in their conversation. Obviously the detail of whether or not their sickness was bad or not is a pretty important detail. In sum, this person was overly vague on something they shouldn’t be meaning there is a possibility of lying here.

#3 Their Voice Changes

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Voice cracking is a common symptom of puberty in young people, especially boys as their voice box begins to mature, but it can also be a sign of lying. When someone lies, unless they are a sociopath, will most likely get nervous or stressed when lying, especially if it is something important, which may vary from person to person.

This can cause changes in their vocal range and may result in cracking. However, it is important to note that this symptom may not actually indicate dishonesty, maybe someone just can’t control where their voice goes, so just make sure to look out for other changes as well!

Another change in someone’s voice would be becoming louder. By becoming louder, someone may be trying to sound more confident in themselves. It also may be a reaction to someone reading to much into what they are saying. By raising their voice they hope to make another person feel reassured that they are honest.

Finally, a third way someone’s voice may change because of their dishonesty is their voice may get high pitched. This is caused by the tightening of the liar’s vocal cords as a natural reaction to stress. However, just like with voice cracking this isn’t a full proof way of verifying if someone is lying, some people just have less control over their own voices than others.

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#4 Fidgeting

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People fidget for a variety of reasons, public speaking, tests, or boredom are common among young people and adults alike. A common reason for fidgeting generally is nerves or stress. This is because when under stress our bodies goes through the fight or flight response causing an increase in adrenaline and the feeling of needing to move. This fidgeting can manifest in many forms including, but not limited to: leg shaking, pencil spinning, and finger picking.

As we discussed earlier, lying is an extremely stressful experience and so fidgeting can sometimes help the liar with staying calm even when they are in their fight or flight response. Often this fidgeting occurs around the face, again as defense mechanism, so the liar may do movements such as ear scratching, covering of the mouth, and rubbing of the forehead.

Summary

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So we’ve gone over a lot of information, so here are the key takeaways:

1. Because lying is mentally exhausting liars have abnormal eye movement

2. People who lie often include extraneous details or are overly vague in their story telling

3. The voices of liars often have unusual voice range compared to usual

4. People who lie often fidget, especially around the face

It is important to note here that all of these signs do not necessarily mean someone is lying. It could just be that they are under a lot of stress when they are talking to you. These signs are merely a way to possibly identify a liar but you should never be entirely sure that the person you are suspicious of is dishonest.