The Ultimate Body Language Book

While he COULD be lying, it’s much more likely that he’s actually anxious. We instinctively (and
wrongfully) link anxiety with lying, when in fact good liars often feel no anxiety whatsoever when they
lie, and honest people feel anxiety when they think they will be disbelieved.
It is a widely held belief that emotional arousal and stress, is strongly tied with lying. It is also at the
heart of the polygraph or lie detector. Here, autonomic responses which happen in our bodies without
our conscious control such as sweating or ‘skin conductivity’ is measured as well as increases in heart
rate and breathing. It is assumed that when lies occur, stress related behaviours increase. Lie detector
machines measure a baseline, that is, they take readings when lying is known to occur and compare it to
readings when lying is thought to occur. By reading the differences, lying should become obvious.
We can use similar methods to read arousal without the help of the polygraph. Watching for an increase
in adaptors, shifting, subtle movements, touching or scratching the face, neck or nose can show us that
someone is uncomfortable. What it won’t show us is the reason for the discomfort. By grilling someone
for the truth, this is often enough to cause someone to feel stress thereby creating the behaviour instead
of uncovering it. Other clues to an increase in stress includes an increase in eye blinking, changes in
posture, avoiding eye contact and foot and leg movement. It is important to always put fear of lying and
arousal into context. Someone with little fear, little to gain or loose, or in other words, ‘when the stakes
are low’ wont show any of these signals. Aside from this lack of tell, it is important to realize that body
language cues, especially lying language is not a result directly of lying, but rather an indication of the
stress, fear and anxiety that may or may not be present when lying.
Chapter 16 - Deception and Lie Detection
Duping Delight, Eye Contact And Smiling
Unlike this fella, good liars often appear very charismatic and this trait helps carry them through their
lies.
Paul Ekman coined the term “duping delight” to explain possible reasons for an increase in certain cues