Can You Tell If Someone Is Lying Through Their Body Language

Know If a Person is Lying Through Their Body Language

We have all had people lie to us, and many people think they are very good at it.  How can you know if your partner, friend, sibling, lover, co-worker, acquaintance, or a stranger is lying to you? What are the clues to help you know they are lying? The answer is easy: read and interpret his or her body language.

Body Language – The Signs

The most common signs of lying that you should look for are signs thee person is nervous, stressed, anxious, tense, defensive or uncomfortable. You notice these by changes in gestures, facial expressions, actions, or mannerisms. These can include: self-touching, mistakes in their speech, halting speech, unusual eye movements, discrepancies in the body and posture, and many more. Let’s dig into these in more detail.

Body Language – The Touch

Self-touches are known as “adaptors”. When a person is lying, they tend to touch or rub their nose, scratch their forehead, play with the hair, wring or twist their fingers, cover the mouth, and other similar things. Frequent self-touching indicates extreme nervousness and increased tension. But, some people have already trained themselves to avoid these things, so you will have to recognize other clues.

Body Language – The Words

People who lie, especially when they are caught in the act, stumble over their speech, stutter, or even mispronounce common words. The pitch of their voice will get higher and the pace gets faster. However, clues in the speech can be tricky. A person may have existing speech defects or it may be normal for that person to speak fast. These are sign that are only helpful if you’re familiar with their speech patterns.

Body Language – The Eyes

Eyes are the most obvious indicator of honesty and lies. Eye movements that may indicate lying include moving from side to side, squinting, frequent or excessive blinking, and looking away. Pupils often dilate when a person is tense, but that isn’t easy to notice. For a long time it was believed it was a sign of lying when a person couldn’t or wouldn’t look you in the eyes. But, since this is so well known, many people practice so they can lie while maintaining eye contact.

Body Language – The Posture

A person may cover up lies through confident facial expressions and voice pitch and volume, however their body can reveal dishonesty. Fidgeting, shaking and trembling of the hands, body stiffness, shuffling the feet, and jitters are typical indicators of lying, but they are not that absolutely definite. Gestures with the palm showing indicate sincerity. But when a person is lying, the palms are rarely seen and are usually inside their pockets. Some signs of defensive posture and protection include, crossing his arms across his chest. Liars are also prone to sweating, increased heart rate, deep breathing and being pale.

Body Language – Other Indicators of Lies

Aside from the things mentioned above, there are several other indicators that a person is lying. However, these are less reliable dishonesty detectors. They include: forced smiles, tightening of the forehead between the eyebrows, biting their lip, hand shrugs, movement of the Adam’s apple, delayed answers or responses, flaring nostrils, tight lips, elbows pulled to the sides, tilting the head, inability to concentrate on other things, and other unnatural gestures. While these aren’t definite indicators the person is lying, but they could be “red flags”, so it would good to be cautious and pay closer attention.

This is the art of understanding body language. Even though it is sometimes unreliable, several different gestures can tell you how sincere and honest a person is with you. As you could probably tell, its not an exact science, but will give you something to watch for when you’re with a friend, a family member, your partner or someone new that caught your eye.

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