We often use white lies to wriggle out of situations or to keep the peace. That’s pretty normal, but it gets problematic when people deceive others to escape blame for something serious. After all, many relationships end because of lies and broken trust, don’t they?
It would be really nice if we could detect when someone was bluffing. No, I am not talking about lie detectors, but a hack that actually helps. A behavioral expert has spilled the tea about how to spot liars, and it will surprise you. Piqued your interest, have we? Just scroll down and find out!
It can be difficult to detect when someone is lying, but not with this interesting hack that focuses on people's behavior
Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Body language expert Chase Hughes, a former U.S. Navy chief, says that the focus should not be on the signs of lying
I am sure that each and every one of us has been untruthful many times in our lives. In fact, a survey found that about 75% of respondents told zero to two lies per day. Lying accounted for 7% of total communication, and almost 90% of these fibs were little white lies.
However, things turn toxic the moment a person’s deception hurts someone else or is used to commit crimes. Well, behavior expert Chase Hughes says that there’s a way to detect when someone is trying to bluff their way through. He’s a former U.S. Navy Chief who turned his years of experience into a career as a behavioral science expert.
Image credits: pressmaster / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Mr. Hughes specializes in the deep stuff like advanced interrogation and psychological operations. In fact, he even created the Behavioral Table of Elements, which reduces human behavior to a science.
If you want to catch someone in a lie, stop trying to memorize a checklist of random body language cues. When Chase Hughes sat down on the Dream Out Loud podcast, he explained that the real secret is simply spotting a change in their normal behavior.
Assuming someone is defensive just because they crossed their arms (maybe they’re just cold!) isn’t the right approach. He says that you need to look for a whole cluster of changes in their normal behavior happening all at once. There are small giveaways such as changes in their breathing rate, blinking rate, whether they touch their face, or even in their fidgeting.
He believes that the focus should be on the changes in a person's normal behavior, and knowing what behavior to look for is important
Image credits: pressmaster / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Image credits: standret / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Moreover, he stressed that asking a good bait question also matters, and keeping it as vague as possible is very helpful
The expert stressed that it all comes down to an evolutionary stress response. When people lie, their anxiety goes up, and they instinctively try to regain control of their environment. Studies highlight that “symptoms of anxiety arise because lying activates the limbic system in the brain, the same area that initiates the ‘fight or flight’ response that is triggered during other stresses.”
Chase Hughes believes this shows up as sudden physical changes, such as freezing, looking for an exit, or gripping their hands together. He adds that one weird look or nose scratch doesn’t mean anything on its own. However, if you notice a sudden pileup of unusual behaviors, there is a very good chance they aren’t telling the truth.
Image credits: Morgan Nelson / YouTube
Lastly, he says that catching a liar isn’t just about reading body language. It’s also about asking the right questions. Hughes highly recommends using a “bait question,” and the trick is to keep it as vague as possible.
The strategy works because guilty people naturally have an emotional, visual memory of what they did playing out in their heads. He believes that when you throw a vague question at them, it forces them to focus on those mental images. If you up the stakes, they instantly start visualizing the consequences of getting caught, which completely freaks them out.
A totally innocent person won't have those guilty memories, so they won't feel that sudden wave of panic, he concluded. However, netizens were critical of his statement that only liars get anxiety. They felt that some people can naturally get anxious when they are interrogated. Do you agree with them? We would love to hear your thoughts, so drop them in the comments below!
While people were surprised by his hack, many criticized and opposed his assumption that only liars get anxious when questioned
