Most people want to learn body language specifically to find out when someone is lying to them, because we all have control over the words we choose to use but very few of us have control of the body movements and gestures that reveal what our true thoughts are.James Patterson, author of the popular book The Day America Told The Truth found out during his research that 91% of the population lied regularly (either White or Malicious Lies) both at home and at work.
Do you remember when you were little and you didn’t want to listen to what your parents had to say so you’d cover your ears? or after telling a lie you’d quickly cover your mouth in an attempt to stop the deceitful words coming out? how about when you saw something really scary or inappropriate and you’d cover your eyes to block those things out? All these facial gestures remain with us as we grow older but become more subtle in the way we use them, some of these gestures however can mean others things such as doubt, uncertainty and exaggeration so make sure you don’t read them in isolation but rather look for a group of deceit gestures or micro gestures such as increased saliva swallowing (more visible in men due to the Adam’s apple), contraction of eye pupils, sweating, blushing and even blinking will increase from the normal 10 blinks per minute to up to 60.Here are a few common gestures of lying:
Say No Evil: As mentioned above, we unconsciously cover our mouth after lying or being deceitful as our brains unconsciously send signals to block what we consciously know is not true, this doesn’t necessarily have to be obvious, sometimes we block our mouth with our whole hand, a single finger as if we were scratching our lip or doing the ‘Shh” gesture (learned in childhood as our parents told us to shut up), rubbing their mouth with a few fingers or sometimes even a fist (occasionally masked by a fake cough).As you can read in the mirroring article, sometimes if your the one lying and the other person is aware of it…they will be the one making the mouth block gestures (the same as many of the other ones below), like when you have something in you teeth, they are the ones passing their tongue through their teeth as if subconsciously signaling you.
Smell No Evil?: This is when the person quickly rubs their nose several times or does one quick stroke on the side, research has shown chemicals known as Catecholamines are released when we lie causing the inside tissue of the nose to swell up while our blood pressure is slightly raised, the raising of blood pressure causes the nose to expand making the nerves inside of it give us that tingly sensation that makes us want to rub it…apart from deceit, this also occurs when someone is anxious, upset or angry, haven’t you noticed when those ‘cocky’ guys (watch The Sopranos) are trash talking or getting ready to fight many do that thumb-stroke-side-of-nose motion? If they genuinely have an itchy nose cause of a cold or hey fever they will be satisfied by deliberately scratching or rubbing it as opposed to a subtle stroke or touch.
See No Evil: Instead of covering our eyes with our hands as we did when we were little and saw something unpleasant, as adults we choose to rub our eye instead, most people shut both eyes while rubbing one of them which provides the perfect way of blocking out what we find deceitful, distasteful or doubtful, we subconsciously do it to block out the face of the person we are lying to…hence why many people ask to be “Looked into their eyes” when they are saying something the other finds doubtful, sometimes we choose to look away as a manner of avoiding eye contact while we tell a lie.The popular belief that people can’t look into your eyes directly while lying is wrong though, several studies have concluded, 70% of liars keep eye contact while only 30% choose to look away, this is because everyone assumes liars aren’t able to keep eye contact which is why liars will choose to do the opposite of what is expected yet will still have small ticks like blocking out the victim by rubbing their eyes.Woman aren’t as obvious when rubbing their eyes, perhaps to avoid messing the mascara? so instead they choose a different approach and scratch underneath the eye or on the upper cheek when being deceitful.
Hear No Evil: As you can imagine by now, this is the gesture used to filter out what we don’t want to hear, if we can’t cover our mouth from being deceitful we’ll try a different approach and cover our ears from hearing the lies we have to say, there’s many different ways used to do the Hear No Evil gesture, pulling on the earlobe downwards as if stretching it, rubbing the back of our ear, shoving our index finder inside to appear like we’re scratching and bending the top of the ear downwards trying to cover the hole.The Hear No Evil gesture can also be used in two other contexts, the first is when a person is feeling anxiety and the second is when someone has heard enough and would like to speak now.
Itchy Neck: This one is performed usually with our writing hand, this gesture is when somebody scratches their neck with their index finger below the earlobe or slightly above the neck from four to six times, it is normally a sign of uncertainty or doubt and can be used by someone who is telling you they agree with what you have to say while secretly thinking something else, making up their mind or holding back their own opinion.Always remember though to read in context with the situation and look out for other deceit gestures to make sure.
Hot Collar: In the same basis of the Smell No Evil gesture approach, when our blood pressure rises we are taken over by hot flushes and sweat causing us a tingly sensation on our face as well as our neck, those tingly sensations is our skin trying to raise our now gone fur in the back of our necks to appear larger to threatening predators, it can also happen when we feel frustrated and angry, pulling on our neck collars is an attempt to scratch our necks as well as let some of the flushed heat from inside our sweaty shirt.
The Pacifier: Quite commonly found in women, this is a direct connection of trying to go back to our infant phase and the security that sucking on our mothers breast provided, I’m sure you’ve noticed many people who are under pressure or afraid will start bitting on their nails or using their fingers to fiddle with their lips or teeth.It’s an obvious yet subtle chain of evolution, where we substituted our mothers breast for sucking our thumb, as teenagers we start chewing on pens, gum or glasses frames and go from there to cigarettes or fiddling with our mouths using our fingers.
Eyes Direction: Depending which way the person chooses to move their eyes towards, it is a strong indicator if they are remembering something or if they are making something up.If you ask a question to someone like “Where did you go?” and they look towards their top right, they are using the memory channel of their brain to remember, if however they look towards their top left, they are using the visual construction channel to imagine and make something up.Read more about it in the Eyes article.
This article is part of the Beginners Guide To Body Language series, please read the rest of the articles by clicking here.
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