The Ultimate Body Language Book

have provided. Therefore, with respect to how people really read lies, the scientific investigations to
date, haven’t provided people with information necessary to accurately detect lies.
Reading lies in real life is an active comparison from information we know for certain, and information
told to us. No doubt, nonverbal language can provide clues to us as a full package, but it doesn’t permit
us to ascertain conclusive evidence. We should therefore use untrustworthy or nervous body language
as motivation to spark further investigation.
Chapter 16 - Deception and Lie Detection
How To Accurately Read Lies
By now we know that liars are practiced, we all do it, and we do it regularly. Sometimes we don’t even
realize we do it and other times those around us don’t care to know. What we do know is that most liars
feel only mild feelings of guilt and fear. Thus, we should only expect very subtle clues to deception and
nothing more. It has been shown through the research that looking for full blown signals of lying is
both misleading and even unhelpful. Liars as it were, are only slightly more apprehensive than truth
tellers with both feeling nervous and anxious when faced with scrutiny.
My advice to read people is to watch for the little stuff, the microexpressions, the small gestures and
the ones that happen instantly, and then hone in on it. Keep in mind too, that you won’t be able to
detect lies much better than about seventy-five percent of the time anyway, which is on par with the
CIA minus of course various lie detection machines which we discussed as being impractical and
requiring cooperation that you are very unlikely to garner, even if provided with access.
The top lie detectors all seem to have one trait in common, and that is skepticism. They know or
assume that someone is lying so they view them through that window being careful to watch and recall
any cues that tip the scales toward deception. Looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses will
lead to rose-coloured predictions about people and this is all just dandy, if you aren’t interesting in
uncovering bad things around you. You also must be aware of a person, from their face to their toes and
be willing to look them over and actively observe them. If you’re goal is to make friends, then by all
means avoid filtering and analyzing the body language around you. In fact, I would advise body
language readers to relax their skills when around family and friends, or at least keep it secret!
It is not safe to immediately peg someone a liar based on one or even a handful of cues just by the
nature of the trade. Reading lying correctly is a long term comparison of the facts seeded with
emotional, fearful and stressed body language from one moment to the next that can only happen over
time. Success will come by looking at the full picture and comparing the parts to the whole and digging
deeper when discrepancies happen between expressive behaviours and the words said. No doubt, lie
detection is difficult, but the body language in this chapter coupled with how it is framed, that is the lie
detection theory and it’s limitations, will help increase your odds significantly.