I watch a show on Netflix called Lie To Me. It’s about a man who studies facial expressions, body language and how they say things to help law enforcement tell when someone is lying. Here is the intro played before each episode. It shows that, the smallest movements could be an indicator that the person is trying to hide something. We are all guilty of lying, whether it is a white lie, a lie of omission or a lie of commission. A lie of omission is where you leave leave out important information and a lie of commission is a statement that is completely false. I want to find out how to catch a liar?  And Who is best at catching a liar?

This article on the different non-verbal signals people make when they are lying and it gives the biological explanation as to why they do it which is extremely interesting. A liar may blink more than the average person. Or they may touch their neck, that is a common psychological response for a person to do when they feel threatened. “Men tend to grasp the front of the neck and in the process stimulate the nerves such as vagus nerves and the carotid sinus. Sometimes they use a few fingers to rub the sides or the back. The gesture stimulates the area and has a calming effect. It can even reduce the heart rate.  “Women tend to cover the suprasternal notch in front of their neck. They may touch the side of the neck lightly. Sometimes this gesture is shown by touching, twisting or playing with a necklace” (Rand 1).

Some other indicators include:

• hiding the hands
• lifting hair off shoulders or pulling the shirt collar off your chest
• tight lips
• raised shoulders
• touching the mouth
• touching the nose
• avoiding eye contact, unless they are a pathological liar, then they will look you straight in the eye and lie to you
• use of word fillers: “um”
• long pauses
• sweating

I would assume that the best lie detectors would be the people who do it as their profession such as police, detectives and even some psychologists. However, a meta-analysis study conducted by Michael Aamondt and Heather Custer shows different results. They looked at 108 studies that had 16,537 subjects. The study looked at gender, age, experience and education. They concluded that “professional lie catchers” such as police officers, detectives, judges, and psychologists were no more accurate at detecting deception than were students and other citizens” (Aamondt, Custer 1). Lie detectors’ accuracy rate is 55.51% while students’ accuracy rate is  54.22%. What I take away from this is that lie detection is a skill that has to be studied and trained, and even after that it takes a special person to be able to read complete strangers. Since this study is looking at averages of types of people, it is saying that no groups of people are better at detecting lies than another group of people; but a specific policeman might be better at catching liars than a specific mom. Also, the theoretical situations they used when testing could not allow the subjects to identify deception.

The meta-analysis did find that people who have have the personality trait of self-monitoring are best at catching liars because they are very aware of their environment and are able to easily read others body and verbal language. Many criminals have this personality characteristic as the article stated that one study verified that criminals have more “insight than students and prison personnel regarding the cues that are the best to use when detecting deception” (Aamondt, Custer 1). This goes with the cliche saying, “it takes one to know one.”

To conclude, there are many ways to detect a liar. But you need to be careful that you aren’t accusing the man who is rubbing his nose of lying, when he actually just has allergies. It takes a special person to be able to detect a liar. If it were easy the government wouldn’t have to hire people to only question people or stare them down until they crack.