ow to Detect Lies

Become a Human Lie Detector (Part 1)

Warning: sometimes ignorance is bliss; after gaining this knowledge, you may be hurt when it is obvious that someone is lying to you. The following deception detection techniques are often used by police, forensic psychologists, security experts and other investigators.

Introduction to Detecting Lies:

This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions. This is just a basic run down of physical (body language) gestures and verbal cues that may indicate someone is being untruthful. If you got here from somewhere else, be sure to check out our Lie Detection index page for more info including newer research in the field of forensic psychology. Last update: March 15th, 2011.

Signs of Deception:
Body Language of Lies:

Physical expression will be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand movements. Hand, arm and leg movement are toward their own body the liar takes up less space. A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact. Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear.Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.
Emotional Gestures & Contradiction

Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, then stops suddenly. Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: Someone says "I love it!" when receiving a gift, and then smile after making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is made. Gestures/expressions dont match the verbal statement, such as frowning when saying I love you.

 Expressions are limited to mouth movements when someone is faking emotions (like happy, surprised, sad, awe, )instead of the whole face. For example; when someone smiles naturally their whole face is involved: jaw/cheek movement, eyes and forehead push down, etc. Also see our article on micro expressions & lying.
Interactions and Reactions

A guilty person gets defensive. An innocent person will often go on the offensive. A liar is uncomfortable facing his questioner/accuser and may turn his head or body away. A liar might unconsciously place objects (book, coffee cup, etc.) between themselves and you.
Verbal Context and Content

A liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, Did you eat the last cookie? The liar answers, No, I did not eat the last cookie. A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: I didn't do it instead of I did not do it Liars sometimes avoid "lying" by not making direct statements. They imply answers instead of denying something directly. The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you... they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation. A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more than the rest of the words in a statement. Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be off. In other words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than emphasized. The use of distancing language. Also see our article on Statement Analysis for a more in-depth look at word analysis techniques used by interrogators.
Other signs of a lie:

If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous subject. Using humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.

Final Notes:

Obviously, just because someone exhibits one or more of these signs does not make them a liar. The above behaviors should be compared to a persons base (normal) behavior whenever possible. Most lie detecting experts agree that a combination of body language and other cues must be used to make an educated guess on whether someone is telling the truth or a lie.

Eye Direction and Lying

Eye Movement and Direction & How it Can Reveal Truth or Lies
This is a continuation of our previous article Detecting Lies. Many comments by our visitors asked about how eye direction can indicate the presence of a lie. Can the direction a person's eyes reveal whether or not they are making a truthful statement? Short answer: sort of. But, it isn't as simple as some recent television shows or movies make it seem. In these shows a detective will deduce if a person is being untruthful simply because they looked to the left or right while making a statement. In reality, it would be foolish to make such a snap judgment without further investigation... but the technique does have some merit. So, here it is... read, ponder and test it on your friends and family to see how reliable it is for yourself.

Visual Accessing Cues

The first time "Visual Accessing Cues" were discussed (at least to my knowledge), was by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in their book "Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) " From their experiments this is what they found.

When asked a question a "normally organized" right-handed person looks (from your viewpoint, looking at them):

Up and to the Left Indicates: Visually Constructed Images (Vc) If you asked someone to "Imagine a purple buffalo", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Constructed" a purple buffalo in their mind.

Up and to the Right Indicates: Visually Remembered Images (Vr) If you asked someone to "What color was the first house you lived in?", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Remembered" the color of their childhood home.

To the Left Indicates: Auditory Constructed (Ac) If you asked someone to "Try and create the highest the sound of the pitch possible in your head", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Constructed" this this sound that they have never heard of.

To the Right Indicates: Auditory Remembered (Ar) If you asked someone to "Remember what their mother's voice sounds like ", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Remembered " this sound.

Down and to the Left Indicates: Feeling / Kinesthetic (F) If you asked someone to "Can you remember the smell of a campfire? ", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they used recalled a smell, feeling, or taste.

Down and To the Right Indicates: Internal Dialog (Ai) This is the direction of someone eyes as they "talk to themselves".

The Gist of it...

How this information is used to detect lies:

Example: Let's say your child asks you for a cookie, and you ask: "Well, what did your mother say?" As they reply "Mom said... yes.", they look to the left. This would indicate a made up answer as their eyes are showing a "constructed image or sound. Looking to the right would indicated a "remembered" voice or image, and thus would be telling the truth.

Final Notes:
*** Looking straight ahead or with eyes that are defocused/unmoving is also considered a sign of visual accessing. *** A typical left-handed person would have the opposite meanings for their eyedirections. *** As with other signs of lying, you should first establish and understand a persons base-behavior before concluding they are lying by the direction of their eyes. *** Many critics believe the above is a bunch of bull***t. In my own experiments I have found these techniques to be more true than not. But, why not find out for yourself? Make up a list of questions that like the sample ones, and give them to your friends/family anyone who would be your guinea pig, observe their eye movements and record the results.

Micro Expressions, Subtle Body Language and Lying

Is the show "Lie to Me" for real?
I am not a police interrogator, scientist, or other expert... I am however a mother & people watcher. Years ago, when I wrote articles on How to Detect Lies & Eye Movement and Lying -I knew of the Micro expression theory, but had a difficult time researching the subject well enough to relay it into an article. Recently, I've come across tons of new research, websites, articles, videos, etc. about micro expressions and believe anyone who reads my old articles about lying & body language would benefit from micro expression research and theory.

What are Micro Expressions?

A micro expression is a momentary involuntary facial expression -- that people unconsciously display when they are hiding an emotion. They are quick & intense expressions of concealed emotion. The main points to remember are that micro expressions are: Brief - Micro-expressions can appear then disappear off the face in a fraction of a second. In other words micro-expressions occur so quickly, that most people don't even notice them.

Involuntary - A micro-expression is caused by involuntary movements in facial muscles. (See the fake-smile illustration ). Most people cannot control these involuntary muscles which are affected by their emotions. Micro Expressions are generally grouped into seven universal emotions: anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt.

A Brief History of Micro Expression Theory

According to Wikipedia - Micro Expressions were first discovered by Haggard and Isaacs in the 1960s. In 1966, Haggard and Isaacs outlined how they discovered these "micromomentary" expressions published under the title: "Micromomentary facial expressions as indicators of ego mechanisms in psychotherapy".

Although it is not included in most histories of micro expressions; I would like to point out that Darwin's book "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" published in 1872 deserves a mention.Darwin noted the universal nature of facial expressions, the muscles used in facial expressions, etc. Check out more illustrations from Darwin's book . Also worth noting is Guillaume Duchenne and the Duchenne Smile. Most websites I can find next list William Condon as a pioneer who studied hours of tapes in the 1960s frame by frame to discover micro movements like micro expressions. I can find little info on this research but there is some other interesting body language & verbal expression / NLP research by a Dr. William S. Condon (I'm 99% sure it's the same dude - contact me if you have any info on the 1960s micro

expression research by Condon as cited on wikipedia). Others mentioned as pioneering researchers in the field include John Gottman and Paul Eckman. Dr. Paul Ekman's research (along with the work of Silvan Tomkins ) in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions took Darwin's work to the next level proving that facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but biological in origin and universal across human cultures. Eckman co-developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) with Wallace V. Friesen in 1976. FACS is a system to taxonomize human facial expressions, and still used today by psychologists, researchers and animators. Dr. Ekman has published many books on emotions, facial expressions and lie detection includingUnmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions From Facial Expressions and Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage.

Micro-Expressions and Lying

Micro Expressions betray us when we lie. We can try to cover our feelings with fake smiles, but involuntary face muscles reveal this hidden emotions. Seeing is easier, watch this short video: (More Micro Expression Video Links Below) Paul Ekman and his research is the inspiration for the TV series "Lie to Me" .

Trained investigators, customs agents, etc. use micro expression recognition along with other body language & speech cues (see distancing language for an example) to determine truthfulness. While most people can be trained to recognize micro expressions and other deceptive cues, some folks are naturals. Ekman calls them "Truth Wizards" .

Latest Micro Expression Research & Training

Dr. Paul Ekman and Dr. David Matsumoto created METT, an online micro expression training tool. METT and METT2 are being discontinued, but both Ekman and Matsumoto have developed their own micro expression training software available on their respective sites. (listed below). Dr. Mark Frank, a former student of Ekman's, continues work on deception and micro facial movement research. Frank identified specific and sometimes involuntary movements of the 44 human facial muscles linked to fear, distrust, stress and other emotions related to deception. Frank's work is being tested for it's use in antiterrorism investigations. (see press release )
My Opinion

Another important thing to remember about micro-expressions is that they only show what someone is feeling...not whether they lying per-se, and not what they are thinking. The micro-expression only tells you their knee-jerk emotional state. (in my opinion).

I believe (with no proof or scientific basis) that micro-expressions can also reveal emotions that are unconscious or only partially related to whatever is being talk about. In other words, just because someone says "that's awesome!" and flashes a brief micro-expression of contempt ... doesn't necessarily mean they are lying about their feelings.... just that there is something about the subject that "bugs" them (and they may not even know it bothers them). So, you show your friend Sarah a picture of your new dog. She looks at you and says "wow, really cute", but you catch a micro-expression glimpse of "disgust". I believe it would be presumptuous to take this as a sign that Sarah thinks your puppy is ugly. She may have been bit by a dog in the past, and that emotion briefly flashed across her face when she looked at the pic of your dog. ( I'm just cautioning readers who can see micro-expressions from simplifying and presuming too much -- human thoughts and emotions are complicated! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXm6YbXxSYk&feature=player_embedded Detecting Deception Using Statement Analysis

How People's Words Betray Them

By Mark McClish - StatementAnalysis.com Introduction by Blifaloo: I am super excited to introduce my readers interested in lie detection to "Statement Analysis" -- a technique used by police and other investigators to determine the truthfulness of written or spoken words. Guest author Mark McClish is a well-respected retired Deputy United States Marshal, and an expert in interviewing techniques. You'll find more info & links about his research at the end of this article.

Intro to Statement Analysis

Statement Analysis is the process of analyzing a persons words to determine if the subject is being truthful or deceptive. The reason these techniques work is because peoples words will betray them. There are usually several ways you can phrase a statement. People will always word their statement based on all their knowledge. Therefore, their statement may include information they did not intend to share. It is nearly impossible to give a lengthy deceptive statement without revealing it is a lie. The Statement Analysis techniques are very accurate because they are based on the English language specifically word definitions and the rules of grammar. For example, when a person states, I am trying to be honest he is telling us he is not being honest. The word tried means he is only attempting to be truthful. When a rape victim uses the pronoun we in her statement she is revealing she is being deceptive. The pronoun we not only shows plurality but it also means a partnership was formed. We would not expect a rape victim to partner up with her attacker. When a person uses phrases such as later on or afterwards he has withheld some information by skipping over something in his story. An example of utilizing the rules of grammar would be to analyze the verb tenses in a statement. When a person is telling us what happened, he is required to speak in the past tense. Therefore, if present tense language appears in his statement, this is a sign he is making up the story. Consider the following statement: I was sitting in my car when a man opened my door, pointed a gun at me and tells me to get out. While the person starts out using past tense language, he switches to present tense language with the word tells. The present tense language is an indication he is not drawing his story from memory. Another example of using the rules of grammar to detect deception is how a person uses articles within his statement. When we introduce someone or something that is unknown, we are required to use the indefinite articles a or an. Once the introduction has been made, we then use the definite article the. We see this in the following statement: A man approached me and pointed a gun at me. He stuck the gun in my ribs and forced me into the car.

In the first sentence, the victim properly refers to the attacker and the weapon as a man and a gun. Having identified the gun, he then correctly refers to it as the gun in the second sentence. A problem arises when he refers to

the vehicle as the car. Since this is the first time he mentions the vehicle, he should have called it a car. Using the article the tells us the victim either recognized the car or he is making up the story. Many times the truth goes unnoticed because people like to interpret what a person has said. However, you should never interpret. First, one cannot read someone elses mind. Secondly, people mean exactly what they are saying. We see a good example of this with O.J. Simpsons so called suicide letter. This was the letter that was discovered when Simpson failed to turn himself into the police. The letter starts out saying, First everyone understand, I had nothing to do with Nicoles murder. That is how you heard it read on television. That is how you saw it printed in the newspapers and magazines. The problem is that is not what Simpson wrote. In his letter, he crossed out the words I had. His letter actually reads, First everyone understand, nothing to do with Nicoles murder. He took himself out of the denial. So, why do most people include the words I had? Most likely because they believe this is what Simpson meant. However, people mean exactly what they say or in this case write. Simpson meant to cross out those words. By using the Statement Analysis techniques, you can determine exactly what people are telling you. This allows you to obtain additional information that sometimes goes unnoticed. These techniques will also show you if they are lying or telling the truth.

WARNING! The techniques contained in this book are used by lie detectionprofessionals, including law enforcement officials and lawyers, all overthe world. They are also backed up by decades of research. Whenapplied correctly, the techniques will give you a statistical advantage indetermining whether or not someone is lying. No technique ormachine, however, can conclusively determine whether deception ispresent. You should therefore always proceed with caution beforereaching the conclusion that someone is lying.The Black Book of Lie Detectionwww.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 2Table of Contents1. We all want to be lie detectors......................................................................... 32. Types of liars and degrees of lying.................................................................... 33. You need to be cautious!................................................................................... 54. Factors influencing detection accuracy ............................................................. 55. Setting the scene............................................................................................... 76. Your body wants to confess .............................................................................. 87. Eye think you are lying to me ............................................................................98. Time to face the

truth ...................................................................................... 109. Listen like a lawyer .......................................................................................... 11 2009 by Martin SoorjooCopyright holder is licensing this under the Creative Commons License, Attribution 3.0.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/usThe Black Book of Lie Detectionwww.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com3 1. We all want to be lie detectorsThere are lies, damned lies and statistics - Mark TwainThe ability to detect when someone is lying is a skill that fascinates us all. On the quiet, manyof us like to think of ourselves as amateur lie detectors. And there is good reason for ourdesire to want to know when lies are being told. Truth and lies are at the core of all ourrelationships: parents and children, wives and husbands, employers and employees and lawenforcement officials and criminals.A lot may ride on being able to detectwhether or not someone is telling the truth.Relationships end because of suspicion of infidelity. Innocent people go to prison because a police officer, prosecutor and jury thought the suspect was lying.Children are abducted because parents didnot detect that a pedophile was talking to their child through an online chat room. And innocent people die in terrorist attacks because intelligence officers did not pick up on the fact that the guy they interviewed six months ago, was lying when he denied being involved with a terrorist group. This e-book will dispel the myths and misunderstandings that surround lie detection. Contrary to misinformation spread across the internet by professional liars, lie detection is not easy nor is it full proof. Professionals get it wrong all the time. Polygraph tests are not infallible but are in fact at best only 60-80% reliable. Through the consistent application of the techniques contained in this e -book, you can however, give yourself a significant statistical advantage in detecting whether or not someone is telling the truth. You will learn effective lie detection techniques used by law enforcement agencies, attorneys and other truth seeking professionals. Sometimes this can be useful and dare I say it, even fun! You will learn how to check yourself before you begin to question someone you think maybe lying. You will learn why how you approach your `suspect' is critical. Why first building rapport is essential and what body language and facial expression cues mean and whether or not the eyes really are windows to the truth. 2. Types of liars and degrees of lying Beware: some liars tell the truth Arab ProverbHave you ever lied? Was it a big lie? Did it make you a bad person? Do you feel guilty when you do it? Truth is, most of us lie some of the time. Sometimes we lie to protect the feelings of someone we care about e.g. not telling your best friend she looks really rough when she is about to go out on a date. Sometimes we tell `white lies' because it's easier to do so rather than telling truth and there's no harm done. James Patterson, author of The DayAmerica ToldThe Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 4 the Truth interviewed more than 2000 Americans and found that 91% regularly lied at work and home. It matters why someone lies. We will nearly always forgive the person who lied out of kindness. We will sometimes forgive the person

who lied where there are no negative consequences. We will even forgive a President who lied about an affair to the nation on camera. But we will rarely forgive the person who lied for self gain at the expense of others. Motive also matters to the liar. A person who believes they have a moral justification for their lie, will find it easier to deceive a truth seeker. A person who stands to lose much if their lie is exposed, has a greater incentive to successfully lie, but will experience greater pressure at the same time which may `leak' out in their verbal or nonverbal communication. We start lying when we are children. It sometimes helps us get what we want. Sometimes it gets us in trouble. Most of us learn that generally speaking, lying is not a good thing and we tell the truth most of the time. But some people develop the belief that lying helps us get more of what we want. So they do it all of the time. Lying becomes something done naturally. And then when we become adults, some of us graduate from being natural liars to professional liars. Professional liars lie for a specific purpose; usually self gain. Otherwise known as con artists, professional liars often prey on the vulnerable in our society. When you are trying to detect whether someone is lying, it matters greatly what type of liar you are dealing with. As with all things, practice makes perfect. Generally, the more experienced the liar, the harder their lies are to detect. I did not have sexual relations Burglary? Trust us, Iraq has WMD s It wasnt me!The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 5 3. You need to be cautious! A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity- Baltasar Gracian Because it is so difficult to read deception, it is very easy to make mistakes when trying to

work out whether or not someone is lying. Although Polygraphs are only accurate in detecting lies 6o-8o% of the time (dependant on the skill of the operator), people are mostly only accurate 5o% of the time. And this statistic applies to many `experts' including law enforcement officials. People often mistake physical manifestations of stress as being indicators of lies being told. This sometimes happens to innocent people standing trial in a criminal case for a crime they didn't commit. The irony is the guilty defendant will have had plenty of time, sometimes years, to rehearse their lie. The innocent person will not have rehearsed because they are telling the truth and are scared because they have a lot to lose. No single behavior is a reliable indicator of deception. So don't assume that because the person looks away when you are talking to them, they are lying about something. You need to look for clusters or groupings of deception indicators. Cultural context is particularly important. While there are some universal behaviors that cross culture, ethnicity and nationality, there are some gestures that have a positive meaning within one society and a negative meaning in another. Your chances of accurately determining whether or not someone is lying, increase if you are from the same cultural and social group And then there is you. What biases and prejudices do you have? What preconceptions do you harbor and myths do you believe? There is much statistical evidence which demonstrates that police officers are more likely to question and arrest a person who has an ethnic minority background because of preconceptions and prejudices they have about the particular ethnic

group. Checklist What is the true basis for your suspicion? What biases, prejudices and preconceptions do you harbor towards the suspect? What motive might the suspect have for lying? Is the suspect an experienced liar? How skilled and experienced are you at detecting lies? "People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to" Malcolm Muggeridge 4. Factors influencing detection accuracy A half-truth is a whole lie Yiddish Proverb It will be easier for you to detect whether or not your `suspect is lying if one or more of the following factors are present: 1. The lie is concerned with an issue that the suspect has strong emotions about.The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 6 2. The suspect has not anticipated they will be questioned about lying and has not had time to prepare. 3. You have a close relationship with the suspect. 4. The suspect trusts you. 5. There will be an amnesty for the suspect if they confess. 6. The suspect has to invent a fictitious account rather than simply withhold information. Commission rather than omission. 7. You and your suspect come from similar cultural and national backgrounds. "The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie" Ann Landers If you want to increase your chances of getting to the truth, then you need to use all of your senses. In his landmark research, Professor Albert Mehrabian established that 55% of our

messages are communicated through our physical behavior and appearance, 38% from the sound of our voice, while only 7% of what we actually say, has any impact. So if you want to accurately interpret the veracity of what your suspect is telling you, you need to adopt a holistic approach to lie detection. This means closely observing your suspect's body language and facial expressions. Listening carefully to how they are speaking, focusing on their pitch and tone. And looking for inconsistencies and discrepancies in the account they are giving. Because no single behavior can be relied on as an accurate indicator of deception, experienced lie detectors look for `clusters' of signals. A change in a person's physical behavior, coupled with a raising in the pitch of their voice mayindicate stress, which may indicate deception. The more you develop your observation skills the better a lie detector you will become. The best lie detectors are always those with the highest levels of sensory acuity. There are many steps you can take to develop your lie detection skills. Once you have read this book and learned how to interpret the signals, start people-watching. Do it in a restaurant or public place where you can hear what people are saying. Look at how they use gestures and their body to support what they are saying. Observe their facial expressions. Watch video clips on YouTube of politicians and celebrities that are believed to be lying. Listen for the vocal indicators and look for the physical signals. And if you are watching a clip where it is widely believed that the person lied, watch with volume turned off. And then reverse things and listen to the liar without looking at the picture. Arm yourself with as much information about your suspect and alleged deception before you

talk to them. Their personality and reputation, history and track record, the context at the time they are alleged to lie, possible motivations. Lawyers and investigators often try to avoid questioning a witness or suspect without knowing the suspect's background first. The more you know, the more accurate you are likely to be in detecting lies.The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 7 5. Setting the scene No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. Abraham Lincoln In addition to taking the steps outlined in the previous chapter, your lie detection efforts will be more successful if you apply the following rules each time you suspect someone of lying and want to establish the truth: 1. Where possible and practical, try to avoid alerting the person that you suspect them of lying. Innocent people become defensive when accused of lying and will exhibit stress signs through their nonverbal and vocal cues, which can be mistaken for lie cues. 2. Try to get your suspect to relax at the outset. Avoid going straight to the deception issue and try to encourage them to lower their guard. 3. Establishing rapport will cause your suspect to relax and trust you. Salespeople and other influence professionals understand the importance of establishing rapport and frequently use it in their communication. In short, you establish rapport by subtly matching the other person's body language, pace, pitch and tone of voice. Talk to them about something they are interested in and that you know something about. 4. Rapport is so effective because of a fundamental principle of human nature, which is

that people like people like themselves. We easily fall into rapport with people we like and are close to. When people have rapport you will notice that they are sitting or standing in virtually identical positions. If you want to learn more about building rapport you may want to download The Black Book of Persuasion which covers this subject and many other effective persuasion and influence techniques. 5. Taking the above steps will make it easier for you to establish a baseline for the suspect's behavior i.e. how they normally behave when they are not undergoing questioning about an alleged deception. When you start to ask difficult, probing questions you will be able to more accurately measure and monitor behavioral changes. We have ways of making you talk!The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 8 6. Your body wants to confess I am not smart enough to lie. Ronald Regan Whilst a person has a relatively high degree of control over what they say, their body language will tell an observer many things, without them realizing or intending this to happen. Very few people are conscious of the messages they continually send out through their body language and even fewer know how to control these messages. Children will frequently use hand to face / hand to mouth gestures when they tell a lie. As they grow up the use of the hand gestures becomes less frequent and pronounced. Body language gives away the emotions we are experiencing. The ability to read body language is therefore a powerful tool for detecting deception. When people are lying they usually feel some discomfort or stress which manifests itself through body cues. The most important movements and gestures to watch are those given at the time of the

critical questions being asked. Bear in mind that behaviors which manifest themselves during questioning, may simply be an innocent person's reaction to the stress of being questioned; particularly if they have a lot to lose if disbelieved. Ultimately, you will have to make a judgment, looking at behavioral indicators along with eye cues, verbal cues and the consistency and credibility of the answers given. You will observe more nonverbal deception cues if you and the suspect talk whilst standing. The more clusters of deception indicators you are able to observe, the more likely it is that your suspect is lying. The following behaviors when demonstrated in response to lie probing questions are consistent, but not by themselves, determinative of deception. 1. The suspect nods or shakes their head in a manner inconsistent with the answer they have given i.e. when asked whether they stole the handbag the suspect says `no' but shakes his head up and down in an affirmative manner. As remarkable as this may seem, it is not uncommon for people to give a physical indication that is the complete opposite to their verbal answer. The physical indication is usually the truthful answer. 2. The suspect rubs their forehead or strokes the back of their neck with their hand. 3. Delayed nodding in support of an answer they have just given. When people are telling the truth they will nod their head simultaneously with the statement they are making. When they are lying, there is often a delay between the statement and their head nodding in support. 4. Perspiring, trembling and blushing. 5. Gulping or finding it difficult to swallow. 6. Touching their nose. Hirsch and Wolfe analyzed Bill Clinton's testimony to the Grand

Jury over the Monica Lewinsky affair. They observed that when he was believed to be lying, he touched his nose once every 4 minutes reaching a total of 26 times. However, during the straight forward parts of his evidence, he rarely touched his nose.The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 9 7. Placing of the hand near or over their mouth. 8. Rubbing the eye. This trait appears more in men than women. 9. Fidgeting, drumming fingers or rearranging themselves. 10. The suspect uses less emphasis when speaking. When people are speaking the truth, they naturally use physical gestures to support their verbal statements. Their eyes wide, they lean forward towards you, raise their eyebrows, wave their arms and gesture with their hands. If you notice that your suspect is using less emphasis than normal when answering key questions, this is indicative that they do not believe what they are saying. 11. Increased shuffling or moving of feet. This is more noticeable if you are both standing. When feeling emotional discomfort as a result of questioning, people tend to move their feet about. 12. Avoiding physical contact. When people lie, they will try to avoid physical contact with the person they are lying to. This will be more apparent if the two parties are in a close relationship and normally engage in physical contact when talking. 13. Placing objects between you and them when being questioned. When lying, people will often place objects between you and themselves in an attempt to create a barrier. They are usually not even conscious that they are doing this. If you are sitting at a table

across from each other, you may be onto something if the suspect starts to place pens, books, cups and bags between you both. 7. Eye think you are lying to me No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someones eyes. Paulo Coelho Whist Coelho is a great author, his expression of the above popular myth is wrong. Practiced liars not only have the ability to look directly into someone's eyes whilst successfully telling a lie, many actually do it deliberately so as to prove they are telling the truth. Conversely, looking away whilst talking to you does not mean your suspect is lying. Innocent people frequently look away when trying to clarify their thoughts. This is particularly so in circumstances where the suspect knows their interrogator. The eyes can, however, still provide useful insights into whether or not your suspect is lying. An increased blink rate is often consistent with telling lies. On average people blink 6 -8 times per minute when not lying. When blinking at this rate their eyes remain closed for approximately 1/loth of a second.The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 10 Pupil dilation is another reliable indicator of deception and is something that the liar will not be aware of or have the ability to control. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) provides a useful technique for detecting when someone is recalling or creating a picture, sound or feeling. The technique involves paying close attention to a person's eye accessing cues. NLP research has established that generally speaking: 1. When a person (right handed) is remembering something, their eyes will go up and

towards the left. 2. If a person is constructing / inventing an image in their mind they will tend to look up and to the right. 3. If a person eyes go straight across to the left, this indicates they are recalling something they heard. 4. If a person's eyes go across to the right, this indicates that they are imagining or constructing a sound or sounds e.g. conversation. The above works in reverse if the person is left -handed. You can easily test this technique on someone by asking them to remember something recent that you know they saw or heard. Then ask them to imagine something they haven't seen or heard before. Observe closely and you should be able to spot their eye accessing cues. As with all of the techniques in this book, you should treat your observations as indicators that go into the scales to be weighed along with other indicators you will have observed. 8. Time to face the truth Im not upset that you lied to me, Im upset that from now on, I cant believe you. Friederich Nietzsche Facial expressions are the number one indicator of emotions. Paul Ekman is the world's leading authority on the interpretation of facial expressions and the scientific advisor to the popular Fox TV drama Lie to Me. Ekman has established that whenever we experience an emotion, it is automatically expressed by the facial muscles. This will often only be for a fraction of a second but is detectable with training or watching a slowed down video. These expressions are termed `micro expressions' and potentially provide us with the most reliable clues as to whether someone is lying.

As a result of decades of research, studying the facial expressions of people from all over the world including small tribes in remote lands, Ekman has identified the following factors, that when present, may be clues to deceit: 1. False smiles 2. Holding the smile too long 3. Mistakes in timing of expressions 4. Blushing 5. Asymmetry Indeed, such is the level of interest in the ability to decode people's emotions by face reading that researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan are developing a facial recognition system for robots and artificial intelligence agents that analyses basic eye, nose and mouth movements. It is claimed the system will be able to detect if a person is telling a lie. In trials in which people played poker, the system has already proved to be as reliable as humans trained to detect lies.The Black Book of Lie Detection www.investigationsystem.com Phone: 800-465-6089 info@investigationsystem.com 11 Recognizing micro expressions is perhaps the most difficult to learn of the lie detection skills contained in this book. Fortunately, Paul Ekman has developed an online facial expression recognition training tool that will help you develop your skills. 9. Listen like a lawyer Lying is done with words and also with silence Adrian Rich Whilst it's important, that when you trying to detect whether someone is lying, you read their body language, eye cues and facial expressions; what the suspect says and how they say it may also provide you with valuable deception indicators.

The most effective interrogations are those where the interrogator approaches the questioning neutrally. Whilst you may have your suspicions, you will be more effective if the suspect believes you are open minded and not accusing them. If they feel accused, they will become defensive and more difficult to read. Where possible, try to allude to the issue rather than directly confront it. If the suspect is not being accused and does not having guilty knowledge, they should not start firing off deception signals. The following verbal behaviors are consistent with, but not determinative of, deceit: 1. Vocal pitch increasing. 2. Increased use of pauses. 3. Speech errors. 4. Inconsistencies in the account. When questioning your suspect ask, pause and observe. You need to give yourself a chance to observe the deception signals they may be giving as well as carefully formulate your next question. Rather than make a direct accusation when your suspect appears to be giving deception signals, you should probe deeper with further questions. Request more detail but do so in an `interested' manner rather than accusatory. Lying about detail requires a lot of thought and concentration. If the suspect has had little time to prepare, you will be more likely to uncover inconsistencies in their account. Ask your suspect to describe their account in reverse chronological order. It is much harder to describe a fabricated account in this way, than it is to recall and describe a truthful one.

One tactic used by professional lie detectors is to pretend they believe the suspect and get them to provide more information. With their guard down, the suspect is more likely to trip up and make a mistake.