To mark National Honesty Day, Darren Stanton - a former police officer with Derbyshire police with a degree in psychology - reveals the seven signs you should look out for when trying to uncover whether a person is being dishonest.
Speaking on behalf of Slingo, Stanton reveals how our faces really can say it all when we're trying to fool someone:
- Liars often overcompensate with eye contact when selling a lie. Generally, we look into someone else's eyes for a period of three to five seconds - any longer is reserved for those we have a deep connection with, like a romantic partner or family member.
- People will tend to blink their eyes more when they are being deceptive - sometimes as much as two to three times more per minute.
- The person lying may create a physical barrier between themselves and the person they are being dishonest with, whether it’s using their hand as a barrier or an item like a coffee cup. They may also turn their body at an angle away from the person they are lying to.
- Linguistic deflection is often used as a way of avoiding the question being asked. Responding with an answer to a different question is immediately a red flag and suggests they are under stress, anxious or nervous - all signs that could imply they are lying or trying to avoid the truth.
- Voice tone will often change when a person is lying. You’ll notice their voice pitch tends to get higher or spike or crack when they are under pressure - a tell-tale sign they are stressed from telling a lie.
- Language is also an important indicator, especially if the person mirrors what you have asked them. For instance, when asking a person if they have cheated on you - an innocent person will respond with their own language, 'don’t be ridiculous, of course not,’ whereas a guilty person has little or no time to relax and their go-to is often to repeat what you have said, ‘no, I did not cheat on you’, as they have no time to construct their own answer and seem plausible at the time.
- Changes in emotion are linked to stress and when someone is under a lot of pressure, their face can be a real giveaway. The lips and earlobes may pale as blood is drawn away from the face and your body reacts with fight or flight syndrome. We tend to pale when in stressful situations.
Of course, it's important to bear in mind that sometimes the body can produce similar stress signals to someone being dishonest when in fact this isn't the case. In psychology, this is referred to a 'false positive’.
