You know the feeling: your gut instincts (which you should never ignore) warn you that something isn’t right here. When you feel someone is lying, your intuition is usually correct.
Someone who is a master of deception can conceal the truth from you without you catching on. Most of us have built-in lie detection capabilities that we can tap into to tell when we are being lied to. However, sometimes liars can deceive us, and the signs might not seem so apparent.
1. Sustained eye contact
Contrary to popular opinion, avoiding eye contact does not indicate a liar. Lack of eye contact may indicate that they are uneasy in social situations.
On the other hand, deliberately holding eye contact while they speak to you with any of these other signs, likely indicates that they are lying. By holding your gaze for a long time, the liar attempts to fool you by proving that they are trustworthy.
2. Rate of blinking
The rate of blinking indicates that you are being lied to. Either fast or very slow blinking can mean that the speaker is not telling the truth.
3. Words that prove honesty
According to Pamela Meyer, the author of Liespotting, humans have a trust bias. We tend to believe people more often than we don’t believe them.
When someone is using language that implores you to believe them, for example saying “To be totally honest with you,” “Seriously,” or “I swear to God,” they are using words to convince you to believe them.
4. Crossed arms over chest
Body language with crossed arms showed that the person was sheltering themselves or concealing something. Since they know that they are lying, they are covering their chest to hide their heart. Unlike their mouth, their heart can”t lie.
5. Not using exception words
Liars employ fewer words to distinguish what they did and didn’t do. These words include “Except,” “But,” “Nor,” and “Either.” They also use more negative emotion words like “hate,” “worthless,” and “sad” due to the guilt that they feel over lying to you.
So what do you do now that you know you’re being lied to? Confront the person with your suspicions and tell them you plan to seek the truth yourself. Once you know for certain whether or not they have lied, you can choose to avoid that person in the future either or continue to talk to them while not trusting their word.
