How to recognize a person's lies by his facial expressions and movements?

In 2009, the TV series Lie to Me was released, the mainwhose hero solves crimes by observing the behavior of suspects. In fact, in each episode, he tries to recognize lies by studying the facial expressions, movements and voices of other people. After watching the show, many people also started trying to use its methods. But psychologists have long believed that there is no way to recognize a lie that works 100%. Nevertheless, there are behavioral features that can betray a liar. Psychologist Paul Ekman, who consulted the creators of the above-mentioned series, made a great contribution to identifying these features. Within the framework of this article, I propose to find out what features in the movements of another person may hint that he is telling you a lie. But let's be clear that you shouldn't blame others for lying right away, because accusations cannot be based on guesswork.

The main character of the TV series "Lie to Me"

In the course of his scientific career, psychologist PaulEkman came to the conclusion that a person's lies can give out 3 factors. First, these are the movements of the muscles of the face and eyes. Secondly, it's body language. Thirdly, it is the voice and conversational manner. That is, when a person speaks a lie, it can directly affect his face, body and voice. But there are often exceptions, so you should always be skeptical about the method of detecting a lie and in no case should you blame people just because “it seemed to you”.

Psychologist Paul Ekman

Face recognition

According to some psychologists, when a person tells a lie, a feeling of distress arises in his subconscious. On his face it can be expressed raising eyebrows, as well as the appearance of asymmetry... That is, folds appear on the forehead of a potential liar, and different emotions are expressed on the left and right sides of the face. Also potential liars often rub their nose - it is believed that the adrenaline rush makes them itchy in the nose. Also, a liar can be betrayed covered mouth or pursed lips.

A covered mouth is one of the signs of deception

You should not ignore the eyes, because, as we know, this is the mirror of the soul. Psychologists believe that when people lie blink more oftenand the eyelids stay closed longer. And of course, a person telling a lie can often look away... This may be a sign that he is ashamed. But perhaps he is just pondering the words with which to hide the truth.

Read also: Examples of how futurists deceive us

Recognizing lies by movement

Not always, but what a person can say about a lie sweats a lot... But it may just be the result of anxiety, so conclusions should be drawn with caution. But if a person fusses and stands in an unnatural position, it means that he is nervous and may be hiding something. Also, a lie can signal rapid breathing, because if a person is nervous, his brain needs more oxygen to work faster. At least that's what psychologists think.

Sweating is another sign of lying

During conversations, you may notice that the interlocutor is leaning towards you. In most cases, this is a good sign and the person trusts you. But if the interlocutor trying to move away, clearly needs to be looked after.Previously it was believed that with a lot of trust, people also try to repeat the movements of the interlocutor. But recently the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science proved the opposite - repetition of movements more typical of liars than close friends. But these results should also be taken with skepticism, because it would be foolish to quarrel with friends over the results of some research.

Recognizing lies by voice

According to psychologists, when lying, people can sharply change voice pitch and speech rate... If this also arises long pauses and stuttering Are even more obvious signs. But even in these cases one should not rush to conclusions, because these may be individual characteristics of a person. On top of all this, potential liars are often avoid uncomfortable questions, cut off phrases in the middle and speak with clearly memorized phrases.

The harsh truth of life - everyone lies

Perhaps these are the most important factors that canhelp in recognizing lies. But the bitter truth of life is that from time to time all people lie. And, perhaps, there are no exceptions - everyone can, at least a little, but lie. The funny thing is, with all this, no one wants to be deceived. After all, this is probably why the audience of the series "Lie to Me" began to try to use the "detective" methods from the series?

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Even the filmmakers themselves andserials. Our site has a great article on how they do it. For example, in some films we are shown how spies put enemies to sleep by placing a handkerchief with some substance on their nose. This trick really works, but there is one caveat. Which one? Read by following this link.