Detecting Liars

I recently came across a research by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Professor David Larcker and Anastasia Zakolyukina. They have researched if it is possible to tell if CEOs tell the truth during presentation of their company’s performance.

These were the findings. CEOs who were hiding information:
- were less likely to say ‘I’ and more likely to use impersonal pronouns and references to general knowledge such as ‘as you know’.
- They express more extreme positive emotions like ‘fantastic’ as opposed to ‘good’.
- Used few extreme negative emotions and hesitation words.

They concluded that the study might not be completely appropriate for capturing business communication, but said, the results were strong enough to warrant additional research.

Since I read this I looked for more evidence on possible lying.

Common signs of lying:
- Lack of or too much eye contact
- Controlled movements (looks a bit awkward)
- Not comfortable with silence, keep on explaining, also using words like ‘honestly’ or ‘to tell you the truth’
- Covers mouth when talking
- Scratch nose / ear
- Show of emotions after the spoken word, e.g. says ‘I like it’ followed by a smile instead of speaking with a smiling voice
- Overdoing it in making a point of innocence
- Using humour or sarcasm as such avoiding a serious answer

A few words of caution. Nervous people could display the same body language as the above. Do not overestimate yourself. You cannot say for sure if somebody is lying, although many people think they can. They cannot.

So what do you do if you suspect somebody is lying?
- Ask for a lot of details and observe closely if the information given is consistent. He may also take unusual breaks as his brain will need time to imagine and construct the story.
- Talk about the same issue in detail after a considerable time gap. Most of the time a liar will have a bit different story.
- Change the subject. A liar will be ready to change the subject and his face / body may look more relaxed. The honest person may be a bit puzzled and want to return to the old subject.
- Watch out for the effort to answer profusely in detail. Be quiet. Good chance that the liar will go on explaining.
- Last but not least, find a way to monitor the liar.

I really hope that you do not need to use this knowledge too often.