Behavioural expert Joe Navarro spent 25 years in the FBI catching spies using various deception-detecting techniques. Joe shares his knowledge with Metro on how to sniff out a liar:
Lack of confidence? Something’s up…
Telltale signs are anxiety, stress, concern and especially a lack of confidence. If I ask somebody, “Where is Piccadilly Circus?” they’ll turn up their palms and shrug their shoulders if they don’t know – that’s normal behaviour. If I ask someone what time did they get home last night, only one shoulder will go up because either you’re uncomfortable or you’re lying. It’s a lack of confidence display.
For both men and women, neck touching is a sure sign of being uncomfortable. This is a legacy from living near lions, we saw that they attacked the necks of their victims, so humans lift their hands to the throat to protect it whenever we are stressed or something is bothering us.
Culture lies
The cultural differences will mask deception to those that are not from that culture. The culture changes slightly how much we may see. In France, for example, people show confidence by keeping their chin up and head high, like de Gaulle and Sarkozy. You don’t see this in South America. But the signs of lack of confidence are the same — the chin is touched in towards the throat.
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Interesting fact: According to researchers in Holland, we tell three to five major lies every day.
