The more someone gesticulates, the more likely it is they might be fibbing. Photo / Getty
The more someone gesticulates, the more likely it is they might be fibbing. Photo / Getty
There's nothing worse than having the wool pulled over your eyes, and when it happens you often wonder how someone managed to deceive you.
Now body language expert Judi James has revealed the key signs to look out for if you're concerned someone is being economical with the truth.
While she warns that there is "no set formula" for spotting a liar, recognising some of the signs can help you root out a fibber, the MailOnline reported.
"Forget all those claims of 'tells' and other body language giveaways that reveal when someone is being economical with the truth.
"A bad liar might blush and sweat and show physical signs of agitation like fidgeting," she explained.
"But a practised liar can easily deliver a lie while looking cool, calm and confident.
"Despite the fact there are no 'one-size-fits-all' symptoms to spot, the following tips should help alert you to the fact that someone's not being totally honest with you."
The big pause: Lying is quite a complex process for the body and brain to deal with. First your brain produces the truth which it then has to suppress before inventing the lie and the performance of that lie.
This often leads to a longer pause than normal before answering, plus a verbal stalling technique like 'Why do you ask that?' rather than a direct and open response.
The eye dart: Humans have more eye expressions than any other animal and our eyes can give away if we're trying to hide something.
When we look up to our left to think we're often accessing recalled memory, but when our eyes roll up to our right we can be thinking more creatively. Also, the guilt of a lie often makes people use an eye contact cut-off gesture, such as looking down or away.
The lost breath: Bending the truth causes an instant stress response in most people, meaning the fight or flight mechanisms are activated.
The mouth dries, the body sweats more, the pulse rate quickens and the rhythm of the breathing changes to shorter, shallower breaths that can often be both seen and heard.
Overcompensating: A liar will often over-perform, both speaking and gesticulating too much in a bid to be more convincing. These over the top body language rituals can involve too much eye contact (often without blinking!) and over-emphatic gesticulation.
The poker face: Although some people prefer to employ the poker face, many assume less is more and almost shut down in terms of movement and eye contact when they're being economical with the truth.
The face hide: When someone tells a lie they often suffer a strong desire to hide their face from their audience. This can lead to a partial cut-off gesture like the well-know nose touch or mouth-cover.
Self-comfort touches: The stress and discomfort of lying often produces gestures that are aimed at comforting the liar, such as rocking, hair-stroking or twiddling or playing with wedding rings. We all tend to use self-comfort gestures but this will increase dramatically when someone is fibbing.
Micro-gestures: These are very small gestures or facial expressions that can flash across the face so quickly they are difficult to see. Experts will often use filmed footage that is then slowed down to pick up on the true body language response emerging in the middle of the performed lie.
The best time to spot these in real life is to look for the facial expression that occurs after the liar has finished speaking. The mouth might skew or the eyes roll in an instant give-away.
Heckling hands: The hardest body parts to act with are the hands or feet and liars often struggle to keep them on-message while they lie.
When the gestures and the words are at odds it's called incongruent gesticulation and it's often the hands or feet that are telling the truth.
Liars often struggle to know what to do with their hands and feet while being economical with the truth. Photo / Getty
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH FIBBING
Judi James is supporting Macmillan Cancer Support's new Murder Mystery fundraising game Whodunnit? and says learning how to lie might help if you decide to take part.
"While I don't usually condone lying, this is the perfect opportunity to try your hand at being economical with the truth," she said.
Convince yourself first: The brain likes to see the whole manufactured story which it can then perform using body language. Don't just think of the transcript, visualise the whole story including all the smallest details.
Visualisation is the nearest you'll get to making the lie reality and that helps make your body language signals congruent.
Relax: To combat the fight/flight response, breathe out slowly and deliberately to relax your muscles, especially the ones in your shoulders, arms and hands. Keep your vocal tone a little lower - lying can make us more shrill.
Slow your blink rate: Fibbing often causes a give-away accelerated blink rate. Slow your own down a little, as this will help create reassurance in your audience.
Keep busy: If you're not very good at lying, try to keep busy when you perform the lie. Actors call this a 'bit of business' which is when less competent actors continue washing up or potting plants while being quizzed rather than struggling with their body language. Sip a cup of tea etc.
It might look rude but it can be better than over-sharing in terms of your body language giveaways!
Tell the truth first: In an emergency such as: "Do you like my new hair cut?" or "Am I the best lover you've ever had?" it can help if you expel the truth first.
For example, "It looks terrible!" or "No you're the worst!" followed by "Only joking, of course you're wonderful!"
