How to Read Liars: The Behavioral Clusters of Deception

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The Behavioral Clusters of Deception

Deceptive people follow certain behavioral patterns. These can be viewed from the most apparent (macro-patterns) to the almost imperceptible (micro-patterns). Here’s the progression from largest to smallest:

- Macro Patterns -

General Behaviors:

• Increased discomfort and anxiety
• Hostility
• Unmerited anger towards you
• Persistent evasiveness
• Resistance

Posture:

• Early signs of extreme rigidity followed by alternating stiffness and relaxation
• Hands, legs, objects put in front of body to form a barrier (folding arms, crossing legs, etc.)
• Feigned lack of interest
• Posture changes caused by topic changes
• Not facing you
• Distancing or leaning away from you

Gestures and Movements:

• Rubbing the forehead near the temple region
• Squeezing the face, rubbing the neck, or stroking the back of the head with the hand.
• Using fewer hand movements to illustrate their actions than usual
• Movement away from you
• Lip licking and hard swallowing
• Wringing hands
• Hiding the eyes

There are two psychological reasons behind the source of these macro patterns. The first is the brain’s inability to differentiate a real physical threat from a perceived one. This awakens the ‘fight or flight’ instinct and explains the hostility, anger, evasiveness or physical attempts to move away from you.

The second reason is that psychological stress increases anxiety so much that we cannot store it internally anymore. This leads to an external overflow, explaining the fidgeting, hand rubbing, sweating, lip licking, leg bouncing etc. When you see ’stress overflow’ try asking yourself what it may mean. If it arose as a result of your questioning, then it may point to deception.

- Micro Patterns -

The micro patterns are all expressed on the face. And again there is a continuum from largest to smallest:

General Expressions:

• Averting the eyes
• Focusing the eyes - some will try to stare down to show control. (A truthful person stares only half the time on average)
• Face whitening (indicates fear)
• Face flushing (indicates anger or shame)

Eye-Accessing Cues

In the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) they use the phenomenon of eye-accessing cues to help recognize patterns of thinking. By the direction of where the person’s eyes are looking, you can determine whether they are using vision, sound or kinesthetic (feeling) to trigger their thinking.

If this represents a person facing you then when they look up and to the left (your upper right) they’ll be accessing a visual memory. Up and to the right (again, your upper left) means that they’re visually constructing (imagining) something. To your right, they’re remembering a sound, to your left, they’re creating a sound. Down right, the person is accessing a bodily feeling or emotion. Down left (your down right), they are accessing inner dialog (talking to themselves).

If, for example, you were asking your child where they got the candybar, and they look to their ‘constructing’ side, then you can be sure they’re fabricating the story.

Keep in mind that this is reversed for left-dominant people (left handers). So before you can use this, be aware of which of their sides is the dominant one.

Micro Expressions

Clearly the most difficult to master, however if you do, this can give you a 90% success rate at detecting lies.

In the nineteen-sixties, renowned psychologist Paul Ekman began decoding the language of facial expressions. He organized them into a syntax of language which he termed “action units” - the set of all distinct muscular movements that the face could make. This totaled to only 46 individual movements, but in combination with each other, the face is capable of producing over 7000 unique expressions!

Luckily for us, we don’t have to memorize each one or its meaning, just be able to perceive the inconsistent “micro-expressions” that one makes during deceit. The FBI and CIA use Ekman’s methods to determine any deception from suspects during interrogations. And their ability to percieve it is amazing. This is due to the fact that some of the muscles involved in expressions are not under conscious control.

This is clearly the case when we feel strong emotions, but wish to supress or hide them. Those expressions of emotion appear on our faces, even if only for a fraction of a second. It probably explains our intuitive feelings that someone is being dishonest, because subconsciously we’re picking up on these expressions. These fleeting, almost imperceptible looks are what’s called “micro-expressions.”

When people lie, they try to hide the fact through altering their voluntary facial expressions (macro expressions) and body language to appear in harmony with their words. Because of this, the face will hold accurate as well as misleading information. Unfortunately, most people respond to the macro expressions and become decieved; However, a few keen observers can detect these micro expressions as well as other imperfections in the macro displays, and are correctly informed.

For example, distinguishing between a fake smile, one that can be performed at will, and a real smile, which is generated by the unconscious brain, comes down to awareness of the action units involved in a genuine smile. (Here’s a great link from the BBC which provides a test to determine if you can determine a genuine smile from a fake one through recognizing these micro expressions: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

According to Ekman, deception will most always show up in the face as an inconsistency between the micro and macro expressions. Even though most people are not attuned to the recognition of micro expressions, most can learn to become sensitive to them.

This article was taken from: lifetrainingonline.com