How To Spot A Liar

August 10, 2010

Interview with Pamela Meyer, author of the book Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception

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Mike Carruthers:
One subject just about everyone is interested in is lying. Because we’ve either all done it or had it done to us.

Pamela Meyer:
We know from research, for example, that extroverts lie more than introverts. We know that men tell more self-oriented lies; they tend to build them selves up. Whereas women will tell what are known as other oriented lies, whether to protect someone’s feelings.
 

Pamela Meyer, author of the book Liespotting... 

If you’re perceived as a wrongdoer then people are going to feel less guilt lying to you. So it’s really, really important to convey that you’re an honest person if you don’t want people to lie to you. We know that married people will lie 70% less frequently to their partners than unmarried people do. But it turns out that the lies they tell when they do lie tend to be the big whoppers.

No one magic telltale sign will expose a liar but there are some things to look for.

People who are lying will often exhibit excessive eye contact to overcompensate. We always think people who are lying to you won’t look you in the eye, well it’s not actually true, they look you in the eye too much usually because they’re trying to appear much more honest.

Another sign that someone is lying is what Pamela calls post interview relief.

Which means they’ll change their posture and they’ll kind of slump down when they think the really hard questions are over – you see this with teenagers quite a bit. And what interrogators will due often is they will prematurely end a conversation – look for that post interview relief just to see if someone’s a little too relaxed after those questions are over.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here