10 Ways To Spot A Liar – How To Know If Someone Is Lying
Lying is a taboo subject for the big majority of human beings. We are continuously fed with “you should not lie”, “lying is bad”. However, there comes a point in everyone’s life when a “white lie” is necessary for maintaining friendships and relationships, and I’m not only talking about the “I do love your haircut today”.
The saying “lies have legs” and the popularization of it makes our subconscious have in it the idea that liars are always caught, that’s why you should always tell the truth. But, even tho this thing sometimes happens, the chances of it happening are not higher than not happening. We, as humans, lie every single when we are in social situations. “I’m only late because I got caught in traffic” when you, in fact, could not decide what clothes to wear.
However, there are some lies that are more serious in nature than the ones I just described. For example, there are tons and tons of scammers that abuse their lying capacity and the fact that some people are prone to trusting strangers in order to make a huge profit for themselves at other people’s expenses. For this reason, it’s better to have the ability to recognize liars when you see them. There is no exact science, but here we have ten tips that can make you spot a liar. How to spot a liar:
1. How A Liar Selects His Words Carefully
If you ever asked a liar at least one direct question you may have noticed that at first, the liar does not want to directly lie about a subject, therefore he will not give you a direct answer at first. A liar selects his words carefully so that he does not tell the truth when asked, as that may hurt either his pride or his intentions.
That’s why, in order to be a liar you don’t necessarily need to say something that is not true, you can simply avoid questions.
2. How a liar uses the Quadi-Denial technique
A liar that is aware of the fact that he lies, knows beforehand that he is about to tell a lie. Because of that, he or she does not want to look too convinced of anything, because that can lead to you being suspicious of the fact that you are being lied to. A liar always tries to disguise his answers in pure uncertainty.
However, he can unknowingly betray himself by using quasi-lies. One example of that is “I may be wrong, but I believe that this will be the hit of the century”.
3. How a Liar Adds Comments To Disguise His Lies
On the same spectrum to the quasi-denials, liars can use qualifying words. This means that the liar is trying to prove the fact that he or she is innocent by adding an additional message.
In this aspect, the adding is intended to qualify his words in the most proper way possible. A common example that can help you on how to spot a liar is : “From what I know, your wife is not sleeping with your best friend”
4. How A Liar Uses Softening Words
Different from the fabric softeners, a liar uses an aiming vocabulary that is mostly designed to cover up a crime. This type of vocabulary can be a big indicator that the person in front of you is lying. A person that is innocent will respond to a crime with some harsh, judging words. Stealing, maltreatment and fraud are some words that no one wants to be accused of, liars are no exception.
A true liar sees the whole wide picture, not just a spot, and that can be seen in his or her words. For a liar there is no such thing as stealing, for him there’s borrowing. For a true liar there is no fraud or mistreatment, there is just good convincement. A liar can actually believe that it can be taken as a simple mistake, not a real crime.
5. How Liars Use Exaggerated Formal Language
Another verbal sign for spotting liars is the fact that they use way too much formal language. Liars usually have their lies prepared before saying them, that’s why they are able to articulate them in a more formal manner than you would normally do.
So, the fact that someone speak in very eloquent manner might indicate that the person you are speaking to is a big liar, more so if he had the time to overthink it. Innocent people rarely use words that sound official.