Signs of Lying You Must Know About

Most of us have come across liars at least once in our lives; you are lucky if you haven't. Some of us have even been betrayed. Living a betrayal is like living in a major loss - loss of faith in someone. Sometimes, it is responsible for separation in the strongest of relationships while some-other-times it may lead to a major heart-break.

Loss of faith, abandonment in relationships, infidelity, insecurity are all the results of a betrayal. It can get a person into depression and have a potential to ruin one's mental balance too. Lying is the first step towards betrayal. But how can you read if one is lying? How will you catch someone red-handed right at the first step?

Can you think of a power which lets you read people's minds and the signs of lying they exhibit? Ever thought of catching someone lying or cheating in the first place? You definitely must be curious to know the answers to these questions. How about having a power that can catch a liar that works stronger than your inner instincts?

It is understood that a person who is lying would never talk about it to the one he is lying to. What can take us to a liar's mind? Body language is the answer! Let us take a look at some of the signs that will help know about signs of lying and how to catch a liar.

Reading body language is an art that needs careful observation of the person's body movements. Observe a doubtful person or a potential liar and watch out for the following points when you are on your mission of catching the liar! Let us take a look at a few hints of lying that are most commonly found in people when they are telling a lie.

Body movements and facial expressions are the best indicators of catching a lie. When a person is telling a lie his body language will slightly start changing. The person's body would soon get stiff because of the nervousness and his body movements will talk volumes about his discomfort.

There will be a change in his breathing pattern. Usually the breathing gets deeper and can get audible at times. There will be unusual and untimely postural shifts in his body. His actions will start looking defensive, with his shoulders pulled up and elbows more into sides.

A person who is lying will have two types of hand movements. The first type is defensive in which palms are closed and fingers are tight. The second type is fidgety in which a person will fidget a lot with his hands while talking. He will be restless and will make too many hand movements that could be easily noticed.

A person who is lying tends to talk in a higher pitch than normal. This happens because a liar wants to be heard clearly so that the listener won't question him further to which the liar will have to fake another answer. A liar also thinks that talking in a high pitched voice will show his confidence which would help in convincing the listener.

Even the best of liars cannot control this body movements even when they are aware of the fact that they are lying. A person who is lying will usually cover his face, mouth or touch his forehead while he is telling a lie.

This happens because even if a liar is aware of what he is lying about, his sub-conscious mind wants to avoid telling a lie, which makes him cover his face and his mouth, without even realizing it.

The speech of a liar will be full of unusual pauses. This is because, a person who tells lies has to think of a story to fake as an answer to any given question. Thinking about a picture and making up a story takes time. Even an ace liar will take at least a few seconds to think of a story and tell a lie. So, watch out for unusual breaks in a liar's speech.

The reason behind the slight delay in replying is same as that of unusual pauses. It also happens because a liar's sensory pattern slows down while telling a lie. On being asked a question about minute details, the person will tend to get defensive at first to avoid a delay in replying.

He would then, take a little pause and continue telling a lie. One should be able to read between the lines, besides just observing the body language.

When you ask a question to any liar, his eyes would move up towards left. This phenomenon is explained as Visual Accessing Cues by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in their book "Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)".

In simple words, if you ask a person to imagine a red rabbit, his eyes would move up towards left he will construct a red colored rabbit in his mind visually. This happens with liars when they are imagining a story in their mind to fake it as the truth.

Eye-movement up and towards right is an indication of remembering old images. For example, if you ask someone "What colored car he saw in the morning?", his eyes would move up to right.

Some liars would not be able to look into your eyes while telling a lie, while some others will try to have excessive eye contact with you.

Lying has a stressful effect on the liar's body. If a person is lying, his eyes are strained resulting in too much of eye blinking.

These are the primary indicants and these signs can be used as warnings to detect if a person is telling a lie. Any one of these signs can be seen on a person even when he is nervous about something. A high-pitched voice or a lack of eye-contact would not always mean that a person is lying.

Sometimes a person may suffer from compulsive lying disorder. A compulsive liar is someone who finds comfort in lying as if he is addicted to lying. He may lie about anything and everything even if you present facts before him. Admitting the truth is probably the last thing he would do. Signs of compulsive lying are different from those seen in normal lying.

• Try changing the topic and see how easily the liar will be ready to change the subject. His body and face will look relaxed.
• If you think he is giving false answers to your questions, try asking him minute details. He will take unusual breaks as his brain will take time to imagine and construct a story with minute details.

• Try asking minute details after a considerable time gap. Most of the time, the liar will have different answers. This happens because an imaginary story is difficult to remember.
• A liar might even try to confuse the listener by adding unnecessary details and deviating from the main issue.

• Ask the liar to look into your eyes all the time while talking to you. If you are a good observer, even a slightest change in his eye-movement that is connected with lying will be noticed. It will be useful to warn him to tell only the truth.

• One of the easiest ways of catching a liar is to let him speak without asking him any questions. The more explanation you hear from him, the more possibility of him lying.

The truth is we all lie at some point of time...it might sound ironic with "truth" and "lie" coming in the same sentence. We lie for good sometimes and some other times to save ourselves from the bad. Lying can be acceptable to some people and an object of intolerance for some others, that completely depends on one's perceptions.

With all due respect to all different perceptions, we feel, lying could be considered or excused only if it is for the good and is harmless. One should remember the risks involved in lying and its heavy repercussions on the human mind.

You should not be very judgmental while catching a liar as these signs could also be seen in a person who is tensed or lacks self-confidence. After all, like a coin, a lie has its two sides too...When your date is lying to you while flirting on a romantic evening, you better enjoy it rather than catching him/her and making things awkward.

But when you catch your true friend lying to you about an important issue you should sort out the problem there itself. Now, the ball in your court, for you to decide how and when to catch a liar! Having said that, we would like to confess that we've not lied while writing the given particulars. Sorry for being ironic again!