Polygraphy, as we have mentioned many times, is a lie detection technique. However, as we have also discussed, we must remember that the polygraph is not exactly a "lie detector" as is most commonly depicted in popular media. Instead, the polygraph is a machine that records physiological responses of the body. The judgement on whether a person is lying comes from an interpretation of these responses.
In any conversation, people can become untruthful in their statements for many reasons. One of them could be an extreme fear of the consequences of being truthful. Another common reason people lie is to protect others.
Simply, a lie as any untruthful or deceptive statement that can create a false impression on those receiving the statement. They are especially concerning when they are uttered with the intent to deceive or give an erroneous or misleading impression.
White Lie or Benign Lie Depending on the source, the definition of a white lie can change. However, the most common definition is that these are harmless lies about minor or insignificant issues. They are spoken to maintain polite social manners and courtesies and, also, to protect the harmony of friendships or any relationship.
Pathological Lie Also known as mythomania and psuedologia fantastica, these are compulsive lies told for no apparent reason. This may be caused by mental disorders such as antisocial personality disorder or sociopathy, but sometimes there are no apparent medical reasons. In some cases, the lies are told in such a way as to make the narrator the hero or victim of their stories, so that they may gain admiration, sympathy, or acceptance from others.
Red Lie This is motivated by spite or revenge and is told even at the expense of oneself. These are the kinds of lies that prove to have the most serious consequences, should they be believed. They frequently build up and result into personal and collective distress as well as permanently broken trust.
Black Lie This is born out of selfishness. The goal is to get out of trouble or to gain something. These lies accompany pretentions and hypocrisies, intriguing to cause dishonor, or discredit someone's good image.
Malicious or Judicial Lie As the name implies, this is a lie told with malice. In other words, the speaker was consciously aware of the falsehood yet continued with the utterance. These statements are made with the intent to cause harm or damage. The level of falsity could be that the utterer knew that the statement was certainly a lie or the utterer simply did not bother to verify the statement. This type of lie is covered by defamation laws, e.g. slander and libel.
Normally, "lying" refers acts done orally or in writing. However, other forms of deception, such as disguises or forgeries, can be considered lies if the underlying intent is the same. A true statement can also be used to lie if the person making the statement intended to deceive. In this case, the intent is taken into consideration more than the statement itself.
Fabrication This is a statement asserted as truth without the speaker knowing whether it is true or not. It can be a straight-up falsehood or a misinterpretation of the truth.
Bold-faced Lie Also called a bare-faced or bald-faced lie, this is an obvious lie but is uttered as truth anyway.
Lying by Omission As the name implies, this is a type of lie that happens when a person tells a truthful statement, but omits an important fact leaving the receiver of the statement with a misunderstanding. It can also happen if a person fails to correct a pre-existing misconception.
Emergency Lie This is a strategic lie told when the truth cannot be told because it could cause harm. It may also be a temporary lie told to a group of people due to the presence of someone who has been deemed as a person who should not hear the truth.
Perjury Essentially, this is lying under oath. This can happen either through inaccurate claims uttered in the court of law or any of the various sworn affidavits done in writing.
Jocose Lies In simpler terms, these are jokes, e.g. teasing and sarcasm, and are understood by everyone hearing them to be such. Comedians also utter them in the form of tall tales - where the actor tells the story confidently asserting them as truths despite all evidence to the contrary.
Promotional Lies These are incredible statements made to entice consumers to patronize a product. These are commonly observed in marketing materials such as advertisements.
Contextual Lies These are falsehoods that happen when statements are told out of context or using a suggestive tone to imply the opposite of a truth.
There are several known methods of identifying lies: by their repercussions, the significance of the nature of the content, the intentions of the speakers, and the nature or interpretation of the statement. Nevertheless, the speakers are still the most useful gauges of lies.
Panic Liars They tell lies to avoid the consequences of the truth such as causing embarrassment to loved ones or cause a blow to their ego.
Occupational Liars These people lie for self-benefit. They are pragmatic liars who tell lies when lying is deemed more profitable than honesty.
Tournament Liars They enjoy lying and the experience of not being revealed.
Psychopathic Liars Regarded as the most tricky type of liars, they have no sense of morality. Hence, they do not regret their dishonesties nor do they manifest any form of guilt.
Ethnological Liars These are individuals who are trained not to divulge information at all costs.
Pathological Liars These are people who are mentally ill and cannot tell right from wrong.
Black Liars These are pretenders and hypocrites who only speak of what they think of themselves, regardless of the truthfulness of those ideas.
This theory states that there are four underlying mechanisms at work when people tell lies:
Arousal Lying can lead to anxiety and arousal as a result of either cognitive dissonance or fear of being caught.
Behavior Control Humans tend to keep one's body language under control so as not to give anything away.
Emotion When people lie, their emotions change. This can be manifested as duping delight, where the liar secretly rejoices at their perceived success, or guilt.
Thinking When lying, people tend to try and think about their statements to ensure coherence in the falsehoods told. As a result, liars tends to speak slowly and with more pauses. Additionally, falsities tend to be generalities to so that the liar can avoid being bogged down by specifics.
When attempting to persuade or deceive, a person violates one of the four universal maxims of conversation:
Quantity The information provided will be complete and without omission.
Quality The information provided will be accurate and true.
Relation The information provided will be relevant to the conversation.
Manner The information provided will be delivered in a manner that others can understand.
Lying is said to occur in a dynamic interaction in which a liar and the listener dance around each other, changing their thoughts in response to each other's movements. The following are examples of a liar's behavior:
Manipulating Information Using broad generalizations and speaking about other people so that the liar can separate themselves from the lie in case the falsehood is discovered
Strategic Behavior Control Restraining signals, such as facial expressions and body movements, that might indicate deception
Image Management Smiling and nodding more frequently during conversations
This refers to the healing effect that occurs when a patient is provided with insufficient treatment. The positive effect appears to come from the patient's belief that the treatment will be effective.
Alternative medicines, ranging from acupuncture and homeopathy, have been thought to work primarily due to the placebo effect. Quack medicines or snake oil from charlatans also rely on this effect for their supposed healing properties.
Physicians are aware that this effect happens yet they only employ it when no other option is available as it raises an ethical quandary due to the fact that it entails deception.
Even when certain people tend to get away with their deceits, most lies are fairly easy to detect if you know how to read the indications. The following are some practical methods for determining whether or not someone is telling the truth.
Start by asking neutral questions You can establish a person's baseline response to questioning by asking simple, nonthreatening questions. These questions include small talk about the weather, weekend plans, anything that could elicit a normal, comfortable response. During this time, pay attention to their body language and eye movement to see how they act when telling the truth. Make sure to ask enough questions so that you can observe a pattern.
Locate access point When the questioning transitions from the neutral territory to the "lie zone," there could be a noticeable shift in body language, facial expressions, eye movement, and sentence structure. When telling lies, everyone gives different subconscious cues, which is why it is important to establish a baseline.
Watch and observe body language Deceptive people often pull their bodies inward to make themselves smaller and less noticeable when lying. Many people will squirm and sometimes conceal their hands to cover up fidgeting. Shrugging may also be noticed.
Observe micro facial expressions When telling lies, the face can potentially convey two messages: what the liar wishes to reveal and what the liar wishes to conceal. These emotions tend to emerge in the form of a micro-expression - a brief involuntary facial expression that reveals true emotion.
These micro-expressions are some of the best indicators of dishonesty. However, it must be noted that a single micro-expression does not provide a conclusive proof of lying. Below are some examples:
A change in speech patterns Irregular speech is one of the telltale signs that someone might not be telling the whole truth. This includes changes in voice and mannerisms during speech. Stammering or swearing to or before a higher power, e.g. God, could also be a signal that the speaker is being dishonest.
The use of non-congruent gestures As defined by Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical psychologist at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders in Scientific American, non-congruent gestures are body movements that do not match a person's words. For example, a person might be saying "yes" but shaking their head "no."
Not saying enough Truth tellers are comfortable adding details to their narratives when asked for information. On the other hand, the deceptive avoid providing further details to their stories so as not to get caught in their lies.
Saying too much On the other side of the spectrum, we have liars who say too much. They do this to persuade their audience, and even themselves, that what they are saying is the truth. Liars also tend to use more profanity and third-person pronouns to distance themselves from their stories.
An unusual rise and fall of the vocal tone This refers to speaking in an irregular pitch. A liar may start talking at a higher or lower pitch that their normal tone when they are telling lies.
Directions of their eyes While the assertion that people look either left or right when lying has already been debunked in a 2012 study published in Plos One called "The Eyes Don't Have It," it is still alleged that the eyes are a good indicator of honesty or lack thereof. Depending on the culture, a person who is maintaining eye contact could be telling the truth or lying.
Covering their mouth or eyes Liars do this as a simple attempt to cover up their deceit.
Excessive fidgeting For children, they might lick their lips, examine their nails, or even shake their hands before telling a lie or when caught in a lie. The same principle applies to adults. This includes tapping or drumming their fingers on the chair or other surfaces.
Finger-pointing This could be literal or figurative finger-pointing. That is, the speaker is attempting to redirect the focus from their person to someone else.
Self-identifying as a good liar Another study published in 2019 in Plos One called, "Lie prevalence, lie characteristics, and strategies of self-reported good liars," those who identify as "good-liars" are a better indicator than lie detector tests. That is, according to the results of the study, those who called themselves "good liars" are those who tend to tell small, simple and clear lies to friends and coworkers. If someone brags about being a good liar, do not believe them.
Forensic professionals are trained to be able to separate fact from fiction. However, one must be aware that you are not required to be a detective nor do you need a lie detector machine to recognize lies.
Truth is subjective by nature and personal perspectives can create biases that can change what is real and what isn't. Even the methods for detecting lies can be contradictory, e.g. saying too much and saying very little can both be indicators of dishonesty. Hence, no one should rely on a single technique when attempting to detect lies, especially for personal or law enforcement purposes. Each situation is different and each should be handled with appropriate caution.
Detecting deception using non-invasive means is based on voluntary supplied information and "leaked" information. Along with these leaks, subjects may also provide nonverbal cues, such as diverging expressions or postures, when lying.
The key assumption underlying these observations is that a person, when knowingly lying or deceiving, enters a psychological state that is different during honesty. These states are assumed to affect both verbal and nonverbal communication channels.
These are the main types of behaviors to observe:
Emblems These are hand gestures that have a predetermined meaning, yet they are not part of any formalized sign language such as the ASL or the American Sign Language. Common examples are best illustrated in the following emoji: ๐๐๐. These hand signs have a culturally agreed-upon meaning or meanings.
Illustrators As the name implies, they illustrate the verbal message with which they are associated. For instance, you could point your finger upwards when mentioning "going up." Unlike emblems, these usually do not hold their own meaning and are mostly done involuntarily and instinctively. When talking face-to-face, these help people understand each other better. Yet, some people still do them during phone conversations as these flow naturally from the speaker without them thinking about it.
Adapters These are touching behaviors and movements that indicate internal states such as arousal or anxiety. They can be directed at oneself, objects, or other people. They tend to emerge as a result of uneasiness or a general sense of not being in control of our surroundings. Scratching, hair-twirling and fidgeting are common examples of self-touching behaviors. In class, during meetings, or while waiting, many people do this unconsciously in the form of pen clicking and leg shaking, among others, in order to relieve stress. Today, it is common to see people fiddling with their smartphones to help them relax.
This last type of nonverbal behavior serves no real purpose during communication and often detract from it. Hence, they could also indicate deception as they could be showing anxiety from the speaker due to the questioning.