BODY LANGUAGE: LIES AND LYING
Lying!
Humans use them so often that more than half the time they don’t even realize what they’re doing.
Lies to protect, to persecute, to reassure, to undermine, to harm and to heal are everywhere. Are all lies are bad? Is it so wrong to tell a person that they’re prettier than they are – if you love them? Still, some lies are pure evil – just think about some of the racist hatred spread by the Nazis. However, no matter what kind of lies they are - they are still deception. There are many signals that give away the liar. These are:
From the list below it’s clear that there is no shortage of signals. The real trick is interpreting them correctly. To do this it is necessary to understand a little about people and why these signals happen.
Anxiety is the key. When people lie, they put themselves in a state of stress. Adrenaline floods the body, the heart beats faster, muscles tense, blood vessels dilate (or contract), pupils’ shrink, the need for nicotine increases and breathing becomes faster. Lie detectors and their ability to work depend on these physiological reactions. A trained body language observer doesn’t need a machine – these changes are very visible if you know what to look for because in addition to physiological changes there are psychological ones too.
From birth most westerners are taught to look at a person when they’re speaking to them. Children instinctively cover their mouths when they lie and people seem subconsciously aware that their gestures will betray them so they hide their hands. Exactly why people do this we’ll leave up to the psychologists to explain but it is enough to know that they do.
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