h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

-The obvious signs of lying, of course, are not keeping eye-contact. The eyes give away so much, so people try to hide the fact that they are lying by not letting you see them. However lack of eye-contact can also be put down to shyness.
-Shifting from foot to foot - worrying that you'll get found out!
-Seeming to want to go somewhere else (to get away so that no guilty expressions are spotted!) - eg looking out the door!, backing up towards the door, half facing the person and half facing the door, etc.

Miscellanious (gotta learn how to spell that word at some point):

Rubbing the back of the head - comforting oneself when saddened, impatience.

Standing with arms crossed - "closed"; anger, stubborness, I'm-in-charge-here (assertive perhaps?), I'm-not-going-to-even-try-to-like-you, etc.

Standing with one hand on hip - "open"; flirty, sexy, here-I-am-boys-come-and-get-me, etc.

Inspecting fingernails, looking at watch - I-could-be-doing-something-better-with-my-time (boredom? fed up?). [Or I-need-a-manicure/Getting-late-isn't-it]

Hands clasped together or one over the other - I'm-scared-of-you (humility, respect)

Okay that's enough for now.

Lisa

That's why when I lie, I always lock eye contact with the recipient of the lie. Some people think it's hard to lie while looking someone right in the eye, but I have no problem with that.

Uh...I mean...I never lie. Yeah, that's the ticket. I've never told a lie in my lifetime. Never, ever. So I don't know what I'm like when I lie, of course not. I'm the most not-lying person in the world.

I feel that standing with one hand on your hip can also mean, "Boy, am I mad now!" or "You make me sick." as well. It all depends on the expression on the person's face.

I used to know this guy in PR - a professional liar. When I absolutely positively knew he was lying to me on a personal level, I'd look him straight in the eye and he wouldn't flinch one bit. It was really frustrating. Charming guy, but a born liar.

Isn't it two hands on the hips that illustrate anger?

Don't normal people get unnerved when other people stare probingly straight into their eyes? So if they don't flinch then they're lying.

In the course of a conversation, if you maintain eye contact, that's not unnerving. What's creepy is if you just stare at them for a while.

I don't know about not flinching indicating that one is lying. Maybe I should start flinching when people stare at me.

There are other ways of telling when a person lies by watching their eyes. The entry refered to pupilmetrics.

A more effective method is a little known trick that comes out of Neuro Linguistic Programming. It's more effective than a lie detector (about 90-95%). A person's eyes invountairily move to in different directions based on what they're thinking about and whther they are creating informaiton or recalling it.

Once you've picked up on thier orientation and their prefered mode of learning, eveything else is pretty straight forward. This stuff is really effective on juveniles. Teenagers are bad liars, and once you pick up on this stuff it's almost scary.

Of course, the people who lie really effectively are the ones who simply convince themselves that what they're saying is true. Of course, the major drawback to this is that if they end up believing it, they'll be committed... and the prerequisite is being intelligent enough to think of a convincing, non-conflicting, plausible story in the time you have in between realising you need to lie, and actually having to.

I think most people don't really know how to lie. They have a hard time keeping their lies straight. Everytime they retell the story, contradictions crop up and they have to create more lies.

In Peirce Anthony's books, Being a Green Mother has a really clever way of approaching lying. I'm convnced that he reveals the secret of lying.

everyone gives theie lies awawy - if the hand touches anywhere on the face whilst saying something dubiuos be very suspiscious.

>Of course, the people who lie really effectively are the ones who simply convince themselves that what they're saying is true. Of course, the people who lie really effectively are the ones who simply convince themselves that what they're saying is true. <

I just reread this. The way to check this out is to ask more in depth questions that haven't been covered yet. They'll be forced to come up with new information which will lead to signs of creativity or deception.

not necessarily. This is where what I said about cleverness comes in. I never said it was easy, but if you're sufficiently quick-witted, this is possible. It alsoo helps to be very observant: If there are tie-ins with what you say to what the inquisitor knows, your lies go down much more easily.

It depends. The process of creating new information takes a lot longer than it does to recall information. The delay can be visible. Add to that, the person has to keep his story consistant. Remebering lies is a lot harder than recalling the truth.

The real kicker is that there are physiological clues that reveal when someone is creating facts. You have to be pretty sharp to interpret them with adults. Teenagers are easy to read. Actually, it's pretty amazing to watch.

This also comes under my "You have to be good at it" heading: a truly brilliant liar cultures the image right from the start that he is a little collected of thought, and therefore seems to spend an equally long time recalling the trueh or creating lies. In the same way, as I said, you do have to be able to remember your lies.

However, if someone doesn't believe they're lieing, then their body won't act accordingly, which is where my point about self-convincing that the lieing is true. (I say this having passed a lie-detector test while saying I was a 70-foot tall green hippo)

Lie detectors are a joke. They're easily manipulated, particularlly if you don't have anything to fear from them, which is why the Ramesy's had nothing to worry about on thier tests. Their only real use is as a way to intimidate people into confessing.

Skillful interrogation would still show that you're lying. You can't have all of the bases covered in a lie. You'll have to create new information. That's what will get you.

The techniques that investigators use now are very helpful at helping witnesses recall more information, and in revealing when someone is creating new information. Most of what you watch for when you are trying to detect deception is involuntairy. You can't control it.

Hmm.. yes, I noticed.

However, I'm still sceptical about this. Although it probably applies in the majority of cases, I still believe that some people are capable of defeating interrogation.

They are.

I'm not sure I can explain it without a visual example. Watch a person's eyes, and ask them a question that makes them think, that doesn't involve any patrticular sense, and recall something. A common one we use is, "Tell me about the home you grew up in." Depending on their orientation and perfered mode their eyes should will dart to the side before answering. Most people will look up and to your right. Their eyes may dance a round a bit as they access different memories. Then ask them a question to which they would make up an answer. Their eyes will go in a different direction (probably up and to your left).

It's pretty cool, and it's very hard to suppress. This works great on teenagers. We were trained to use it, and we had a hard time decieveing eachother. There aren't a lot of people who are trained to use this, including detectives.

There are also a bunch of other things that can be used to detect deception, kinesitics, pupilmetrics, Cognitive Interview Technique (that's really more to help witnesses than to detect deception), I can't recall the rest of their names, and that's all without knowing anything about the investication.

One really cool one is Sceintific Content Analysis. That's where you take a written statement, and you can tell, based on a person's wrod choices, if a person is lying.

Fun stuff.

I still think that this only applies in a certain number of cases. I, naturally, have very shifty eyes: Whatever I'm doing, whether I'm sitting watching a play, going jogging, talking to someone, etc, dart my eyes around all over the place: I'm always looking at the environment around me: If you were to apply that to me, you'd end up with all sorts of strange conclusions.

The most convincing way to lie is to ensure that your fibs contain a certain element of truth, it doesn't need to be much, but as long as a small portion of your story rings true this can serve to throw off even the most thorough lie spotter.

ANY SUGGESTED READING ON THE OLD LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING WOULD B GRAND MATE