A body language expert reveals the best way to spot a liar.
Californian Vanessa Van Edwards, founder of Science of People, which provides people with science-backed skills to improve their communication and leadership, joined Stephen Bartlett this week to share “The Diary of People.” a CEO” podcast.
The speaker, who is also the bestselling author of Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication, reveals that most people are only 54 percent accurate at spotting lies, and says you’d be better off tossing a coin.
But she said it’s possible to spot a lie based on certain clues that a liar usually, but not always, does.
Audio cues to look out for that may indicate a lie are the intonation of the question and the drop in volume.
However, there are also nonverbal cues to be aware of, such as facial expressions of incongruity and disgust.
She said, “There is no single clue that someone is lying, but there are some clues that show up over and over again.”
“Voice cues are very important. They tell someone how you feel about them and how you feel about yourself. One of the biggest cues is , an accidental intonation of a question.”
Body language expert Vanessa Van Edwards from California has revealed the best way to spot a liar.
“The interrogative tense is when it goes up at the end of a sentence, so it sounds like you’re asking a question, even if you’re actually using a statement.
“When we listen to someone talk and hear them accidentally use the question reflex, our brain goes from listening to scrutinizing.
“Our brains wonder, ‘Why did you ask me that?’ People who lie often use it incorrectly.” Inflection of the question. The liar is asking, “Do you believe this?”
“We conducted a large-scale experiment in the lab. We asked people to act out two truths and a lie. And I’ve found that by far one of the biggest patterns is that the liar “asks” for their lies. statement. ‘
“Our brains are very good at this, and when we hear someone use a question inflection by chance, we think that someone is lying to us.”
Vanessa claimed that highly effective people actually fall at the end of their words, a phenomenon called “downward intonation.”
Vanessa, founder of Science of People, which provides people with science-backed skills to improve their communication and leadership, joined Stephen Bartlett (pictured) on the CEO Diary podcast
She said, “President Obama is very good at throwing words around, and he says things that you can’t help but want to hear.”
“Not only does it give him more resonance, but it also makes you think he really believes what he’s saying because it’s the opposite of the intonation of the question.”
“If you ask questions about your name, your specialty, your job, people start to doubt you.”
Vanessa also claimed that a “drop in volume” is a good indicator that someone might not be telling the truth.
She explained: “So when we get anxious or nervous, the volume goes down and we get out of breath. If you listen, you can hear someone literally running out of fuel, literally running out of breath.” In other words, I suddenly feel out of breath.”Volume. ‘
But she also argued that we need to look for nonverbal clues when trying to spot a liar.
she said: “So it’s non-verbal, what you’re looking for is a mismatch where the words and the body don’t match.
“The biggest and most obvious one is when someone says ‘yes’ and then shakes their head and says ‘no,’ or when someone says ‘no’ and shakes their head and says ‘yes.’
“There are cultural exceptions to this, with India, Bulgaria and Pakistan giving a slightly different nod. In fact, research shows that.”
The author also claimed that “mismatched facial expressions” also tend to divulge a person’s true emotions.
She explained: “Research shows that the number one cause of liars is disgust. Disgust is an expression that people make unconsciously.
“When we don’t like something or smell something unpleasant, we wrinkle our noses and flash the whites above our teeth.
“People who lie often find that if they lie too often, they often feel dirty and dislike themselves for lying.”