Lying Is There Any Way(s) to Know

Lying Is there any way(s) to know when someone is lying or telling the truth? Consider body language, voice patterns, handwriting, or other traits. Consider situations. What could you do to reach a conclusion? Detective work? polygraph/lie detector? Yes it is possible to detect a liar, but it can be difficult to do in some situations. There are several verbal and nonverbal clues that reveal deceit. Among these clues are physiological reactions such as pupil dilation, blushing, blinking, hyperventilating, blanching skin, and increased sweating.

(Ford) Most often individuals that are lying display one or more of these reactions and if you pay close attention these clues are obvious. According to an article entitled "Lies!, Lies!!, Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit," physiological reactions "are governed by the autonomic nervous system and thus are out of the liar's control. Dilation of the pupils can be a physiological sign of fear or anxiety." (Ford) In addition the article reports that facial expressions can be a telltale sign that an individual is being deceitful.

Frequent or continuous smiling is often associated with deceitfulness. The article explains that there are four types of smiles that were identified by a study conducted by Ekman and Friesen. These smiles include the felt smiles, fear smiles, contempt smiles, dampened smiles, miserable smiles (grin and bear it), and the Chaplin smile. (Ford) Felt smiles are an indication that the individual is being truthful. The article explains that a felt smile involves "is produced by the zygomatic major muscle, which pulls the lip corners up.

A strong contraction of this muscle stretches the lips, pulls the cheeks upward." (Ford) On the other hand all of the other smiles are associated with deceitfulness and do," not accompanied by involvement of muscles around the eyes or inappropriate offset times, and as masks that only cover the movement of the lower face but not the reliable (more "honest") muscles of the forehead." (Ford) Other forms of body language are also associated with deceit. The article explains that body movements such as illustrators and emblems.

Illustrators are defined as hand movements which are used to illustrate whatever the individual is talking about. (Ford) Ford explains that when an individual is being deceitful their hand movements decrease. The article states that, These movements are significantly reduced when people are focused on exactly what it is that they are saying and when they are less spontaneous and more deliberate.

A decrease in the frequency of illustrators might mean that the person is being deceptive and focused on the monitoring of the verbal content of the lie." (Ford) Emblems are described as body movements such as posture and facial expressions that are common to a particular culture. (Ford) When an individual is telling a lie these emblems will be opposite to the words that are being spoken. (Ford) Voice patterns can also be an indication of deceit.

In many cases individuals that are being deceitful there is a change in the pitch of the voice. The pitch of the voice will increase if a person is lying. (Ford) The voice may also crack or the voice may waver when an individual is being deceitful. An individual can also show deceit in the way that he writes. When an individual is lying their handwriting may appear to be sloppy because there is an increased level of anxiety.

Now that we understand that there are several ways to determine whether or not an individual is being deceitful, let's share some situations in which an individual was caught in a lie. We will also discuss situations in which the individual displayed signs of deceit but were actually being truthful. In the first situation Keith and John go to the local convenient store with the same amount of money in their pockets. They both buy the exact same things but John comes out of the store with a soda.

When John is asked if he stole the soda his eyes get shifty and his skin begins to turn red. As he begins to respond the pitch of his voice increases and he states that he did not steal the soda. Later on in the day the police come to John's house and let him know that the surveillance cameras in the store had observed him stealing a soda from the refrigerator. In this situation the signs were an indication that John was being deceitful.

In another situation Allen and Katie go to.