A liar is a person who bends the truth repeatedly. They stray from the truth and make up false statements to hide reality. Some lie to shield you from the hurtful truth and others lie to protect themselves. Either way, when someone lies to you, you will feel; betrayed, resented, and anguished. Paying attention to peoples body language, eye direction, and reactions can help stop the destructive feelings that accompany a liar and his lies.

One of the easiest way to detect a liar is to watch the persons eyes. The direction of peoples eyes can tell you if they are making something up or recalling from their past. For example, if you tell someone to imagine a truck driving by and they look up or down to the left, they are visually constructing an image. When someone visually constructs an image they are creating an image straight from their imagination. On the other hand, if that person looks to the right, they are visually remembering a similar image of a truck driving by. Eyes can also point out a liar when they are constantly looking towards the exit. A liar would feel uncomfortable making eye contact with the other person and search for a way out of the conversation. “So, in general, a glance to your left when observing a person indicates that they are creating or ‘lying’ while a glance to your right signifies that they are remembering an actual event, or being ‘truthful.’” (Nugyen Tam)

Liars often send off signals that are extremely evident and easy to catch when you are looking for them. Liars can show deception signals on their face, in their arms, legs, torso, hands, and feet. When a liar is hiding something in a conversation pay attention to common nervous ticks. These ticks can include nose scratching or twitching, ear pulling, hair fidgeting, and mouth covering. Shoulders that are shrugged symmetrically and completely explain that a person is answering honestly. Shoulders that are tilted and partially shrugged indicate deception. Arms that are crossed and folded indicate a closed, defensive posture. When hands are clasped together and are not used for gestures when telling a story imply insecurities. Arms and hands are essential for conversation and are known as the most expressive parts of the body. If they are not used or overused in conversation that person may be lying, The palms-out stance with your torso open is considered the most welcoming, truthful position, which is the complete opposite of the arms crossed and hands folded position. Your lower half of your body are also known as hotspots to signs of nervousness. Legs that are spread wide apart are an attempt to pronounce domination and used to cover up weakness. Rubbing thighs are a way of relieving stress. Crossed and locked ankles express discomfort and anxiety. Tapping feet commonly occur when someone is nervous or stressed. Any signs of nervousness, anxiety, and stress during a conversation act as indications of deception or lies. (Liespotting)

There are often times where you can not seem to catch any evidence of a liar but you just know that they are lying. Your hunch and gut feeling can be right but you will never know unless you test the suspected liar. Ask them random unexpected questions and watch their reaction. If they answer right away and seemed relieved that the topic has been changed, then they might be lying. Look for contradictions. For example, the suspected liar might shake their head no but answers yes. (Heather Hatfield) Look for extra details. Sometimes a liar will give too much detail when explaining a story to persuade you into thinking that they are being truthful. Also look for inconsistency. Being inconsistent is a dead giveaway to lying. A liar might get caught up in a lie and forget the first details to their original lie. (Heather Hatfield)
The ultimate step to catching a liar is being aware of microexpressions. “A microexpression is a very brief expression, usually about 25th of a second, that is always a concealed emotion.” (Heather Hartfield) Microexpressions are the initial and truthful emotion that appear before the lying and dis honest emotion. Microexpressions happen unconsciously and can be harmful when trying to lie. Your first response to something will show emotionally on your face for a fraction of a second and then go to what you want the other person to think. Lets say someone told you how their dog learned a new trick, you honestly don’t care but you don’t want to hurt that person’s feelings so you smile. Before that smile an eye roll or a tilted mouth might show before the smile indicating unconcerned emotions because you could truthfully care less. Paying attention to peoples microexpressions can help you decide if a person is lying or being honest. (Tom Shceve)
Catching a liar might cause problems but is essential for a healthy relationship and will always benefit you in the long run. To catch a liar you should look at eye direction, body language, awareness, and microexpressions. Even though the evidence may be convincing you should always be careful of wrongly accusing someone of lying. This could put you in a bad spot and potentially damage the other person’s trust in you. You should always pay attention to the other person in a conversation because you might just catch them in a lie.


Bibliography

Arrows, Francis. "How to Catch a Liar Through Body Language." Nicolas Fradet. Web. 07 April, 2014.
http://www.nicolasfradet.com/how-to-catch-a-liar-through-body-language/

"Body." Liespotting. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. http://liespotting.com/liespotting-basics/body/


Hartfield, Heather. "10 Ways to Catch a Liar." WebMD. Web. 06 April, 2014.
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/10-ways-catch-liar?page=2

Scheve, Tom. "What Are Microexpressions?" HowStuffWorks. 15 Dec. 2008. Web. 06 April, 2014. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/microexpression.htm