Can body language help me determine if a person is lying?

Answer 1

Definitely! Face turned away, no eye contact. Here is more:

Body Language Lying signal one
Face touching incited lying. Think back to Bill Clinton and Monia Lewinsky, When asked about sex he touched his nose immediately after lying.

Body Language Lying signal two
Does the person suddenly change the position of his or her arms or legs like crossing arms over chest or crossing legs? This indicates hiding something.

Body Language Lying signal Three
Doe the liar shift eyes away or do the opposite and stare excessively? This is a good body language sign to look for.

Body Language Lying signal Four
Does the liar turn his or her body away from you? Again this indicates hiding something.

Body Language Lying signal Five
Does the liar change the pitch or speed of the voice and or use mms or ahs?

Signs of Deception:
Body Language of Lies:
• Physical expression will be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand movements. Hand, arm and leg movement are toward their own body the liar takes up less space.

• A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact.

• Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.

Emotional Gestures & Contradiction
• Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, then stops suddenly.

• Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: Someone says "I love it!" when receiving a gift, and then smile after making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is made.

• Gestures/expressions don’t match the verbal statement, such as frowning when saying “I love you.”

• Expressions are limited to mouth movements when someone is faking emotions (like happy, surprised, sad, awe, )instead of the whole face. For example; when someone smiles naturally their whole face is involved: jaw/cheek movement, eyes and forehead push down, etc.

Interactions and Reactions
• A guilty person gets defensive. An innocent person will often go on the offensive.

• A liar is uncomfortable facing his questioner/accuser and may turn his head or body away.

• A liar might unconsciously place objects (book, coffee cup, etc.) between themselves and you.

Body Language
Verbal Context and Content
• A liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, “Did you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”

•A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “ I didn't do it” instead of “I did not do it”

• Liars sometimes avoid "lying" by not making direct statements. They imply answers instead of denying something directly.

• The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you... they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation.

• A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more than the rest of the words in a statement.

• Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be off. In other
words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than emphasized.

Other signs of a lie:
• If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous subject.

• Using humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.

Final Notes:
Obviously, just because someone exhibits one or more of these signs does not make them a liar. The above behaviors should be compared to a persons base (normal) behavior whenever possible.

Answer 2

Yes, body language helps to determine if a person is lying or not. When somebody tells a lie then his face pale, his activities change all of a sudden and he tries to pretend that he is very sicere. Some people also smile a bit before telling small lies.

Answer 3

As long as the person judging the body language is not out to make a quick judgement. It takes awhile to study people's reactions and movements. People fumble with items in the hands, want to move away, cannot make direct eye contact, will not answer a question directly, look at the floor or their feet and/or become agitated easily. People with some mental disorders are sometimes harder to determine because they believe what they are saying is actually true.

Answer 4

yes it most certainly can. Body language is the biggest give away for most people when they are lying. There is such thing as lie detectors which monitor your heart rate and other body reactions, but they are used very rarely. Some people are much better at lying and it is very hard to tell whethere they are telling the truth. Most people will become nervous when they are lying while others can ignore there conscience.

Answer 5

I think it can personally. I can generally tell if someone is lying to me just by watching their reactions. If they are nervous and jumpy. Some of them just dont look you in the face while they are lying. I work in a bar and i have to ID people alot and can tell right away most of the time if i need to ask for an ID ...they tend to act like they are gonna just run...LOL. But then again you have those liars who are very good at it and can look you straight in the eye and lie...so its a toss up i guess...hope this helps you.

Answer 6

Limited eye contact, they will look to the left or look up. When somebody is telling the truth they are much more emphatic with their hands and general body language as they express emotions they felt in a situation. A liar won't do this as there was no situation and subsequently no emotion.

Answer 7

Body language alone is not an accurate indicator of the truthfullness of the person you are talking to.
Many factors come into play in verbal communication.

Cultue, the individual's comfort level in the situation.
I personally am very uncomfortable with people that make a lot of eye contact, it feels confrontational to me.

Answer 8

Yes. You need to have a good working knowledge, though, and what if the other person is manipulating their body language in response, or has mental problems, or is from a different culture?

Answer 9

Yes! Most people who are lying will not look you straight in the eyes, they may fidget around, advert their eyes. It really depends on the person. I have had patients with mental problems that were very hard to distinguish if they were lying or not.

Hope this helps!
Kali :-)

Answer 10

Judge Judy