Featured Image Credit: YouTube/The Diary Of A CEO
Topics: Podcast, Psychology, Community
Liv Bridge
A lawyer has revealed there's one word that is a 'dead giveaway' someone is straight up lying to your face.
You might have an inkling that someone is being dishonest with you based on body language or other social cues, but it's usually difficult to tell for certain.
However, according to a lawyer and communication expert, there's actually a single word that people tend to use when spinning their web of lies.
Talking on Steven Bartlett's podcast Diary of a CEO, Jefferson Fisher said the slip-up is often a 'dead giveaway' someone is telling fibs.
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The trial lawyer revealed based on courtroom tried-and-tested tricks that liars often speak in 'extremes,' such as using words like 'never' and 'always'.
In an example, he told Steven to ask him if he was 'texting while you were driving the other day.'
Jefferson replied: "No, I never text. Never text when I drive."
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The novelist explained how his response would indicate a lie, saying: "Now notice I said a big word. I said 'never'. Never is an extreme.
"Extremes are a dead giveaway that they're usually not telling the truth. Everybody texts when they drive at some point in time, even in your car. Never and always. It's always or never true. So that's a big one."
Jefferson also pointed out how he answered the question really quickly - which is another surefire way someone might be lying.
"I didn't breathe, think about it or try to actually show you that I was trying to remember in time," he said. "I gave you a really immediate response."
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The pro then turned to demonstrate the power of repeating a lie back to the suspected liars, seemingly to get them to sweat under the pressure.
He asked Steven to ask him: "You never text when you drive?" and said liars 'wouldn't like that.'
"So what they'll do most often is they'll say, 'well, I mean sometimes I do', because now they hinge on that word 'never,'" he continued to explain. "So now they know, 'oh, that's a risk word'. And they'll kind of come out of it and go, 'I mean, sometimes I do, I mean, maybe, but hardly ever.'
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"When that happens, what you typically want to do is give them an out. Now they've put themselves into a corner and they're looking for an out. And a way to do that is to say, 'if you were texting, it's OK.'"
Jefferson, the author of The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More, who also hosts his own show, The Jefferson Fisher Podcast, where he advises listeners how to communicate with confidence, also said silence can be a 'killer' when catching a liar out.
"Silence is the number one killer of liars because they have conversations in their head for you," he said, explaining how an awkward pause in the flow of conversation can force the other person to reflect on what they've said or fill the void.
...Never say never, after all.