How To Spot Lies In Body Language
There are several more indicators of lying. However, they are less reliable in detection of dishonesty. Among them are forced smiles, slight tightening of the forehead between the eyebrows, lip biting, hand shrugs, movement of the Adam’s apple, delay of answers or response, flaring of nostrils, tighter lips, elbows pulled to the sides, tilting head movements, inability to concentrate on other things, and other unnatural gestures.
This is the art of understanding body language. Even though sometimes unreliable, several different gestures can tell you how sincere and honest a person is to you. Simply look for the typical signs of lying and detect dishonesty instantly.
It is possible that you can detect lies even by merely looking at the body language. There are many signs delivered by the body, head to toe, wherein you could determine the person is lying. Catch your husband cheating, your friend hiding a secret from you, or a person being dishonest by knowing the signals of lying and dishonesty.
The Typical Signs of Lying
The signs that obviously show that a person is lying are sings of nervousness, tension, and anxiousness. You could observe these emotions by the way his eyes are moving, how he moves around, and how he reacts to your verbal attacks.
Eyes: The Clearest Indicator
The eyes are very strong indicators of every emotion, including dishonesty. When the person cannot look straight at you or he is unable to prolong the eye contact, there is a big possibility that he is lying. Notice also the rate of his blinking. Do not literally count how many times he blinks, you can easily spot it. Frequent movements of the eyes, like looking at other objects other that you, and pupil dilatation are also indicators of lying.
Observe the Hands
Some people have practiced prolonging eye contact when lying, so the next best sign you should be observing are the hand gestures. A person lying would usually have trembling hands during anxious moments. He also would tend to show excessive use of hand gestures while talking. When defensive from a verbal attack or when hiding something, the person would usually put his hands into his pockets or cross his arms over his chest. He will also tend to fidget with something with his hands or tap them.
Note How He Speaks
Observing a person’s way of delivering his speech is somewhat tricky. You may have to know first how he normally speaks before judging his sincerity or honesty. But if you already know the speech habits of the person, then it would be less difficult to detect lying. The volume of the voice would be softer than usual, but during a defensive state of mind, he would usually raise his voice. Then there would be some speech errors, such as mispronunciation, stuttering, or stammering. The pacing of the way he talks would also be faster.
Other Signs Of Lying
Another sign of lying is when the person would tend to touch himself when he delivers his lies. Self touching gestures include rubbing the nose, scratching the forehead, and touching the nape, elbow, or other parts of the body. Self touching is a strong indication of discomfort and guilt.
Observe also the rest of the body. Note if the person is trembling, fidgeting, or shaking. But these actions are usually found during extreme nervousness. A stiff posture with the elbows pulled to the sides and tightened muscles is a posture which reflects lying as well.
The meanings and interpretations of the different acts and signals of body posture are not always true and definitive. This is one of the risks in reading other people’s body language. You may be too quick to judge their honesty and even their whole personality. Thus, be careful in interpreting other’s gestures and body movements.
The last thing you would want to happen is a conflict due to miscommunication and misinterpretation.
Expressions Through Body Language
Most of the time, words are not enough to express how someone really feels. And sometimes, what we say are not really what we intend to convey. This is where nonverbal communication gains its importance in the interaction of two or more people.
Body language, a form of nonverbal communication, is the conscious and unconscious use of gestures and body movements to send messages, moods, feelings, and state of mind. You can easily identify one’s emotions if you know how to read and interpret his or her actions.
Anger
This emotion is probably the easiest to identify from one person. Aside from the increasing of the voice volume, facial movements could identify anger or fury. It could be identified by one hard, intense look on the source of his anger or when the eyebrows would meet at the center slightly above the bridge of the nose. Other facial body language involved in this emotion include nasal flaring, teeth baring, snarling, flushing of the face, shallow breathing, and tightening of the lips and jaw.
A person with a clenched fist, perspiration, his hands on the waist, or arms crossed across the chest are signs of anger as well.
Nervousness, Tension, And Anxiety
The most common signs of these emotions are dry mouth, pale face, trembling of the lips and fingers, and perspiration. A nervous or anxious person would tend to move a lot to remove the tension off his body, thus he would fidget, rock or tap his feet, drum his fingers on a surface, or pace around the room back and forth. Lack of eye contact or the inability to hold prolonged eye contact is also an indication of these emotions.
Fear and Defensive State
Trembling, perspiration, and a pale face could also be seen in fear. The skin will be cold and clammy, the voice will tremble, muscle tension, and the body will have a defensive posture when threatened. A defensive posture includes the raising of the hands, crossing of arms or regressing to the fetal position. The person will also try to make a distance from the source of his fear or danger.
Flirting And Attraction
Flirting body language is quite complicated since women and men have different ways of showing it. But the signs that the two genders have in common in showing attraction include prolonged eye contact, smiling, raising of eyebrows, preening, adjusting or touching of clothes, looking at the lips of the other person, leaning towards the person, and closing the distance.
Interest And Focus Of Attention
Eye contact is the most indicative sign of interest and attention. Leaning forward to the person and nodding are reinforcements that you are indeed listening to him or her. When the eye would wander to another object, it means that the person may be bored or his attention was distracted.
Confidence
Confidence is evident in a firm handshake, good posture, calm muscles, and comfortable use of hand gestures when conversing. When sitting down, a relaxed position is indicative of confidence as well. Sitting on the edge of the chair with tense back muscle would mean otherwise – tension or nervousness.
Body language has a way of telling us how a person really feels, but the meanings and indications are not reliable and true at all times. Basically, the gestures stated above are the general body movements commonly used by most people in the same situations and emotions.
Be Happy – You Can Understand the Wrongs Through Body Acts.