How To Spot A Liar, According To A Harvard Psychologist

No one likes to be lied to, and nothing is more frustrating than trying to find out if someone is telling the truth. We can try to look for sweaty palms or a nervous twitch, but sometimes there are moments where we just can’t decipher the reality behind what someone is saying.

Although we can’t carry a lie detector around with us at all times, we can use certain tactics to catch whether or not someone is lying.

One Harvard psychologist named Amy Cuddy says that instead of looking for one telltale sign of a lie, we need to look at discrepancies across all means of communication, including facial expressions, speech and posture — what matters is how the person is saying it, not what they’re saying.

Because lying is a lot of work, our brains sometimes lets some signs slip, what Cuddy calls a “leak.” In her book “Presence,” Cully advises to look for conflicting emotions, such as a happy face with an agitated expression.

However, most people tend to focus on the topic of conversation rather than how the person is telling it, which makes us generally quite bad at accurately spotting liars.

At the end of the day, to spot a dirty little liar, one must look additionally at the person’s actions and how well it matches up with what they’re saying.

Next time your child claims they didn’t eat the last of the cookies, you may want to check if there’s a sneaky little grin on their face before you believe them.

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