How to spot a liar
Being able to tell when someone is lying is a very useful skill, whether it’s in dating, business or in your general day to day life.
However, it’s easy to get it wrong if you don’t know how to do it properly. Of course, everyone tells the odd fib from time to time but these are mostly tiny white lies. Here are some tips on how to get the bigger picture and spot the giveaways:
1) Watch the eyes. Liars will often use prolonged eye contact or try to avoid looking at you at all.
2) Listen out for what they say. Saying things like “To tell you the truth”, “To be honest…” or “No word of a lie” then they are usually doing the opposite.
3) Look to see how rigid their body is, as the stiffer they are then the more chance they are telling you a lie. They might not be wanting to give any clues away so will fold their arms, cross their legs and freeze like a statue.
4) Everyone has a “tell” which is a slight nervous reaction to something. This could be something as simple as brushing the hair out of their eyes, a little giggle or a sniff. The idea is to note how often they do it, and if it’s frequent it might well be covering up deceit.
5) Liars will try and hide the palms of their hands, so be cautious if they have their hands behind their backs, under the table to grasped together tightly.
The same rules apply for spotting lies as for any other body language – you need to look for several signs together to be certain.
We all scratch our noses or shuffle our feet, so don’t be too quick to judge!
Happy dating,
James Preece – The Dating Guru
