BRAIN AND NERVE CARE

How to Tell If Someone Is Lying

By Temma Ehrenfeld and Sherry Baker @temmaehrenfeld
 | 
August 25, 2022
How to Tell If Someone Is Lying

Detecting lies isn't at all simple, but you can learn how to tell if someone is lying: Fleeting expressions may reveal hidden emotions or deception.

Sometimes it’s not obvious what your boss is thinking, and you feel uneasy. Or maybe you suspect your teen is lying to you but can’t pinpoint what’s making you suspicious. It’s possible that you’re catching “micro-expressions” that come and go in a flash on people’s faces just beyond your conscious awareness — and theirs.

 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Teen Lying Linked to Signs of Alcohol Abuse

 

How to tell if someone is lying

Detecting lies isn’t simple. Liars can fool judges, therapists, psychologists, and law enforcement personnel. In fact, studies have consistently shown those professionals’ ability to judge a lie from truth is often no more accurate than chance or a coin toss, according to a report by the American Psychological Association (APA). No one sign, even “shifty eyes,” is reliable.

Instead, you need to see inconsistencies in facial expressions, including micro-expressions, and interpret them, says psychologist Paul Ekman, PhD.

In the 1970s, Ekman developed a numbering technique — the Facial Action Coding System — for the movements of facial muscles. Narrowed lips are 23; a tightened lip corner is 14.

While recording these movements, he observed expressions that crossed the face in as little as a 20th of a second. In a separate study, researchers videotaped participants while they looked at emotionally provocative photos and concluded that nearly 22 percent made micro-expressions; the movements tended to occur only in the top or the bottom of the face, rather than both.

Guessing that these moments betrayed hidden emotions, Ekman sought out stars in law enforcement to see if they were better at catching these expressions consciously. While working as a Texas Ranger, David Maxwell, one of Ekman’s stars, had seen a murderer show micro-expressions of happiness while professing grief. The murderer was lying.

But micro-expressions can also pop up when people aren’t lying. Let’s say the wife of a murdered man is talking calmly about the case and flashes a micro-expression of happiness while remembering her honeymoon. The expression is only a clue to ask more questions, Maxwell says.

There’s some evidence that, with training, people can see more and respond more accurately to others. When medical residents were trained to notice minute facial expressions, one study found, patients rated them higher on empathy. Department store employees have been taught to catch micro-expressions. People with schizophrenia have improved their skill at reading others after training.

You can also become more conscious of your own emotions, says Ekman, author of “Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life.” He offers one-hour online videos that teach viewers to catch micro-expressions and subtle expressions that last longer — the slight wrinkling of the nose, an upturn of the mouth, or lifted eyebrows.

The videos also teach how to interpret what emotion an expression reveals: anger, surprise, fear, sadness, contempt, disgust, or happiness.

Myths about how to tell if someone is lying

Before you start questioning your boss or accusing your teen, be aware of a number of myths about lying.

People don’t actually fidget and look away when they’re lying. You may have heard that liars blink less, pause more, avoid eye contact, raise their chins, look nervous, or show dilated pupils. None of those are reliable signs in all people. Socially nervous people can look like they’re lying when they’re just nervous.

You also may be wrong if you think that because you know someone well, you’ll be better at catching his lies. We tend to rely on a history of trust.

That’s why today’s researchers are looking at new ways of detecting lies, especially strategies that elicit overt signs of deception. Research shows liars, especially criminals, make up their “facts” and typically have a prepared story with little more to say, according to the APA. So, the interplay between a person who is lying and the person he or she is talking to can be key to exposing deception.

A case in point: It can be particularly useful to ask unexpected questions, according to Aldert Vrij, PhD, a professor of applied social psychology at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, who researches strategies to outsmart liars. Surprise questions frequently result in a liar floundering when trying to respond or contradicting their previous claims, he explains.

 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: When Your Child Might Be Lying

Updated:  

August 25, 2022

Reviewed By:  

Christopher Nystuen, MD, MBA and Janet O'Dell, RN