Here’s one ugly scientific fact that we all have to learn to deal with: everybody lies. So if you’re willing to find out if someone is a liar, you’re already starting with the wrong question. The much better question is WHEN the person is lying or how often he or she does it.
There are plenty of signs in the body language indicating that a person might be telling a lie to you. If that person stutters, is talking vague or repeats a question before providing the answer, those are strong hints that a lie might be taking place. The good or bad news is that there are a lot of other signs telling you that a person might be trying to lie, and we just found out another one.
Trying to distract the potential liar is the key
According to ScienceAlert.com, a new study published in the International Journal of Psychology & Behavior Analysis reveals that trying to distract the attention of a person who’s trying to say something is one of the best ways of finding out if there’s a lie coming.
How is that possible? There’s obviously an extra effort to do something else at the same time you’re trying to construct a lie.
However, you shouldn’t expect the method to work every time. The new task needs to be perceived as important as the lie. Otherwise, it won’t work.
Aldert Vrij, a psychologist from the University of Portsmouth (UK), stated:
When the opportunity to think becomes less, truths often sound more plausible than lies.
Lies sounded less plausible than truths in our experiment, particularly when the interviewees also had to carry out a secondary task and were told that this task was important.
Feel free to tell us about your own ways of detecting when someone is lying!
