ARE YOU BEING LIED TO?

The nonverbal clues that may indicate someone is being

deceitful

By : Tara Jorgensen, Valerie Cawby, Jessica Harper, Christopher Lay, and Delisa Kinlow

DID YOU KNOW…

- Extroverts lie more than introverts- Men typically lie more than females- More than 82% of lies go undetected- A third of all resumes contain false information

Edwards, V. (n.d.). Do you know when someone is lying to you? Retrieved from http://www.scienceofpeople.com/do-you-know-when-someone-is-lying-to-you-new/

Types of lies and reasons for them: - Protective lie that shields liar from danger- Heroic lie that protects someone else from danger- Playful lie that enhances a story- Ego lie that prevents embarrassment- Gainful lie that enriches the liar- Malicious lie that hurts someone

Rodriguez, L. (2015). Watch body language for signs of lying. Retrieved from http://learnbodylanguage.org/body_language_lying.html

Why do children lie?

Children have learned that they could get in trouble for telling the truth so they decide to lie instead to try and avoid consequences.

Kinesics: The use of body languageFacial expressions and gestures.

Adult signs of lying/deception:- Body and face become stiffer- Hand-to-face touching increased- Lips become thinner and tighter- Shoulders pulled up, elbows pulled in closer to body- Forehead tightens up a little- Eye contact breaks away. Eyes may squint or close- Palms turned down or closed.- Sudden change in posture and movements from normal

patternsRodriguez, L. (2015). Watch body language for signs of lying. Retrieved from

http://learnbodylanguage.org/body_language_lying.html

Kids signs of lying deception:- Avoiding natural eye contact

- Looking down and to the side

Science behind the behavior

One of the reasons these things happen is because the fight or flight response kicks in, that’s why you dry swallow. When the fight or flight response kicks in, all extra moisture in the body gets wicked away and taken to the skin for sweat. The act of dry swallowing is to activate the salivary glands. This is the same reason when someone lies they’re always clearing their throat or maybe working their jaws back and forth.

Afifi, W., Andersen, P., and Guerrero,L. (2011).  Close Encounters: Communication in

Relationships.  3rd ed.  Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Argyle, M. (1975).  Bodily Communication.  London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1975.  162-164.

Birdwhistell, R. (1970). Kinesics and Context; Essays on Body Motion Communication.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 43-45..

Silence: Lack of sound or talkingAdults tend to shut down and try to maintain control of the situation and in doing so becomes quiet. *The also employ longer pauses when speaking deceptively.**

Children also show a longer lag time between a question and their response

**Barker, E. (April 26,2014). Signs of lying: here’s what will and will not help you detect lies. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/77940/detect-lying/

*Rodriguez, L. (2015). Watch body language for signs of lying. Retrieved from http://learnbodylanguage.org/body_language_lying.html

Paralanguage:- some kind of modification or articulation of the vocal

apparatus, or significant lack of it (i.e., hesitation, between segments of vocal articulation)  (Key, 1970).

There are countless ways that any word can be vocalized. Syllable emphasis, pitch, sarcasm, emotion, and intonation are just a few that play a role in human vocal paralanguage. Monitoring the variation of these cues to catch someone in a lie can be very difficult. However, depending on the age of an individual who is unskilled in lying, eventually, they will succumb to unconsciously revealing what they are trying to hide. Let’s take a moment to discuss what this looks like within various age groups.

Key, M. (1970). Preliminary Remarks on Paralanguage and Kinesics in Human Communication. La

Linguistique,6(2), 17–36.

Toddlers:Toddlers are not only beginning to master verbal communication in general, however somehow, human nature includes built-in wiring for telling fibs and fakeries. This can be very cute at such a young age when you ask a three-year-old if they drew on the wall and they respond with a quiet “nooooooooo”.  I have included a picture below of this very incident that occurred with my son, over 10 years ago as he attempted to lie about drawing on the walls with a blue marker. As you can see, there is maker all over his hands and face.

Elementary age:Lying evolves as a child grows. By the time a child reaches school age, they are receiving plenty of examples of the benefits of lying. What this age group struggles with is how to control their emotions. Paralanguage within lying at this age looks like this: Without saying a word, they will just look at you with a sweet

innocent face in order to deter you from proceeding in the questioning.

You may find yourself asking the child to repeat themselves because they are speaking so low.

Middle school and teens:By this age, kids feel like they are more intelligent than most adults. However, when trying to talk their way out of a lie, the following may occur. Words may become all jumbled up and spontaneous stuttering can

keep them from getting words out. There tends to be a range of being very soft spoken or irrationally

yelling back the response. Arrangement of words and overall grammar may be off as well.

Adults:

Adults tend to be quite a bit more savvy on how to control their nonverbal cues. Yet, as we know, no one is perfect. Adults would attempt to not answer a question directly is by using

your words to make answer out of the original question you’ve asked. When asked, “Did you come straight home after work?” The liar answers, “Yes, I did come straight home after work.”

Pausing to allow themselves time to get their nerves under control. Specifically, concerning elderly adults, I have noticed that the

question can be avoided overall by blaming hearing issues, or refusal to answer the question by responding, “do you know how old I am?”

Haptics: Physical Appearance

Toddler-school-age As a kid if you knew you were going to tell a lie, you would put your

hands behind your back and cross your fingers.  On the USAcademy website states that “you are hoping somehow to be excused or to escape punishment for lying.(Cross your Fingers; Fingers Crossed, n.d., para. 3)

Young adult It's funny when I have two sons who are both extremes of these two

types of communication. On the haptics side, my oldest son uses the sense of touch when he's lying. He'll become more huggy and closer to your personal bubble to try to get you to believe his lie.

But as far as my youngest son his body language changes when he lies. His eye contact changes and the way he holds his mouth are his they way I know he's lying. It's almost like he's trying to fix his face to look more truthful.

With both boys, they hate asking me for anything. When I know they are lying, I become the FBI. I want to know the who, what, when,

where, and how. By the time they got done, they do not even remember the first lie they told.

Adult

breathing changes delay in answering questions voice changes loses eye contact It is harder to tell if an adult is lying, if you do not know them.

Rodrigues, L. (n.d.). "Lying and Body Language." Lying and Body Language. EastWest Institute for Self-Understanding. Retrieved from<http://learnbodylanguage.org/body_language_lying.html>.