Body language expert reveals the 'red flag' signs that means someone is lying to you
Dylan Murray
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Diary of a CEO
In this day and age, we’re always trying to identify 'red flags' among those we are speaking to.
At this point, it’s just the nature of the beast. Trying to make sure you aren’t hanging out with or even dating someone who shows signs of possibly being manipulative, a liar, or both is a common experience among plenty of people currently trying to make friends or find a partner.
However, we are only human and sometimes, these signs can go over our heads - even ones that we definitely shouldn't ignore.
So how do you tell if someone is lying to your face?
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Body language expert and author, Vanessa Van Edwards, recently broached the subject in her appearance on the podcast The Diary of a CEO alongside host Steven Bartlett.
While she does have some tips and tricks, Vanessa was quick to remind listeners that there is no 100 per cent foolproof way to detect a liar, and we, as humans, are actually quite bad at doing so.
“Most people can only spot a lie with 54% accuracy. They've actually studied that the accuracy of the average person is very bad. You're better off tossing a coin.” she said.
“It is very important to give someone the benefit of the doubt because you don't know. It is very hard to spot."
She continues that research have determined characteristics that liars 'typically do' but not always, adding: "There's no Pinocchio's nose."
However, when it comes down to it, there are a few telltale signs to look out for, such as a tonal inflection that suggests a lack of certainty.
“If all of a sudden you hear the question inflection used on a statement or a number or a boundary or a timeline … That's just a little red flag that says dive deeper. Nothing is a sign of lying, it's just a sign you should dig deeper." Vanessa said.
Another inflection to keep an ear out for is a drop in volume as she says when we are 'anxious or nervous', we tend to 'lose volume'.
Adding that she tends to hear this in sales calls, she said: "I always know what part of a sales presentation makes my entrepreneurs the most nervous because they lose volume."
Otherwise, when physically looking at someone, Vanessa says that finding incongruences between a person's physical actions - and what they’re not saying is a good way to potentially detect a lie.
“The biggest, most obvious one is when someone says yes but shakes their head no or says no but shakes their head yes," she noted, before adding: “You'll also see this with mismatched facial expressions. The biggest one for liars, the research finds, is disgust.
“When we don't like something, or we smell something bad, we crinkle our nose up, and we flash the upper whites of our teeth. Liars typically feel dirty when they lie, so oftentimes they'll show disgust with themselves for lying."
Because this facial expression is 'unnatural', Vanessa says she watches for a person's 'nasal wings' going up, which she says means they 'aren't into' whatever she is proposing.