Source / Credit: CNN
A person’s demeanor or voice radically changes
As an investigator, I first try to assess how someone normally speaks. To do that, I begin an interview by asking questions that I know the answers to, like “What’s your full name?” or “Where do you live?” Some folks are naturally animated and talk fast; others are more subdued. Once I know which type of talker a person is, I start asking him questions that I don’t know the answer to. If his manner shifts abruptly — going from calm to agitated or lively to mellow — chances are he’s not telling the truth.
–Gregg McCrary is a retired FBI criminal profiler and a crime analyst in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
RealSimple.com: What is your body language saying?
A person avoids saying “I”
In my research, I’ve discovered that when people fib about themselves, they tend to use I and me less often than people who are being truthful. Instead, they’ll speak about themselves in the third person (“This is a girl who loves to ski”) or even truncate their language (“Really into listening to jazz”) — anything to give themselves psychological distance from the lie.
–Jeffrey Hancock is an associate professor of communication at Cornell University who studies online lying.
Categories: Psychology