How To Spot Lies In Body Language

It is possible that you can detect lies even by merely looking at the body language. There are many signs delivered by the body, head to toe, wherein you could determine the person is lying. Catch your husband cheating, your friend hiding a secret from you, or a person being dishonest by knowing the signals of lying and dishonesty.

The Typical Signs of Lying

The signs that obviously shows that a person is lying are sings of nervousness, tension, and anxiousness. You could observe these emotions by the way his eyes are moving, how he moves around, and how he reacts to your verbal attacks.

Eyes: The Clearest Indicator

The eyes are very strong indicators of every emotion, including dishonesty. When the person cannot look straight at you or he is unable to prolong the eye contact, there is a big possibility that he is lying. Notice also the rate of his blinking. Do not literally count how many times he blinks, you can easily spot it. Frequent movements of the eyes, like looking at other objects other that you, and pupil dilatation are also indicators of lying.

Observe The Hands

Some people have practiced prolonging eye contact when lying, so the next best sign you should be observing are the hand gestures. A person lying would usually have trembling hands during anxious moments. He also would tend to show excessive use of hand gestures while talking. When defensive from a verbal attack or when hiding something, the person would usually put his hands into his pockets or cross his arms over his chest. He will also tend to fidget with something with his hands or tap them.

Note How He Speaks

Observing a person's way of delivering his speech is somewhat tricky. You may have to know first how he normally speaks before judging his sincerity or honesty. But if you already know the speech habits of the person, then it would be less difficult to detect lying. The volume of the voice would be softer than usual, but during a defensive state of mind, he would usually raise his voice. Then there would be some speech errors, such as mispronunciation, stuttering, or stammering. The pacing of the way he talks would also be faster.

Other Signs Of Lying

Another sign of lying is when the person would tend to touch himself when he delivers his lies. Self touching gestures include rubbing the nose, scratching the forehead, and touching the nape, elbow, or other parts of the body. Self touching is a strong indication of discomfort and guilt.

Observe also the rest of the body. Note if the person is trembling, fidgeting, or shaking. But these actions are usually found during extreme nervousness. A stiff posture with the elbows pulled to the sides and tightened muscles is a posture which reflects lying as well.

The meanings and interpretations of the different acts and signals of body posture are not always true and definitive. This is one of the risks in reading other people's body language. You may be too quick to judge their honesty and even their whole personality. Thus, be careful in interpreting other's gestures and body movements.

The last thing you would want to happen is a conflict due to miscommunication and misinterpretation.