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Asked by mrssophiebieber to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 27 Jun 2012.
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Philippa Bird answered on 27 Jun 2012:
It’s funny because everyone has different “tells” when they are lying, so there is not a generic rule I can give you that’s true for everyone (though not making eye contact is a common sign). However, the best thing to do is trust your instinct. Instinct is an amazing thing, you subconsciously collect up little signs of things like lying and other things, and then you don’t know why you have an instinct about something you don’t think you know something about, but actually you do.
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Tom Lister answered on 27 Jun 2012:
If you are recalling something, you tend to look to the right whereas if you making something up, you tend to look to the left – unless you know about that, in which case you might look to the right when you are lying to make it more convincing.
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Tim Stephens answered on 27 Jun 2012:
Sometimes a lie is so outrageous that you can spot it a mile off. Other times, the story that you are being told doesn’t make sense and then the liar realises and starts to blush.
Comments
Pip commented on :
What’s the scientific basis for that?
Tom commented on :
It’s social science – so based upon observation.
There may be a link between the way in which we store audiovisual information and the visual field of our mind’s eye- perhaps something left-brained or right-brained, but I would have to guess at this.
Pip commented on :
Cool. So there you go, kids, we’ve just trained you how not to be caught lying.