How to Read Liars: The Process

To understand how this works, let’s study an example. Assume you are dealing with a used-car salesman and you want to make sure that he’s not selling you a lemon. Begin by creating a framework of non-invasive questions to establish his normal, baseline behavior. Essentially you want to ask questions in which you’re sure he’ll tell the truth. It may go something like this:

YOU: Now, if I decide I want this car today, what are the steps I need to take?
HIM: explains to you…
YOU: So, how long have you been in business? (he’s unlikely to lie since this can be confirmed, if he does then you already have your answer)
HIM: goes on to tell about the history of the place
YOU: Since I’m in the area today, what restaurants do you recommend? What kind of food do they serve?
HIM: tells you about his favorite place…

If you noticed, none of these questions were invasive. Also, he has no incentive to lie about these things. While you are listening to him, pay attention to his voice, eyes, body language and facial expressions. Where does he look when he’s describing his favorite dish? What are his hands doing as he’s explaining? What’s the general pitch and tone of his voice? Is he leaning toward or away from you? Does he tend to overly gesticulate?

When you feel pretty confident that you recognize his baseline, you can now ask him the questions that you really want to know. These will be questions about the quality and history of the car, it’s maintenance record, etc. It’s at this point that you want to look for those patterns that aren’t in harmony with his baseline.

This article was taken from: lifetrainingonline.com