How to Detect Lies

Becoming adept at using facial expressions to determine whether a person is lying, might just save you from being a victim of fraud. Or even help you to know it's safe to trust your heart and get involved with an attractive stranger. Jury analysts use lie detection when assisting in jury selection, the police do it during an interrogation and even judges use it to determine which side to find in favor of in a civil case. To do it yourself, you'll need to learn how to read the little facial and body expressions that most people don't notice. It takes a little practice but having this skill can be fascinating!

Steps

Observe the face and eyes : 

Look for micro-expressions. Micro-expressions are facial expressions that flash on a person's face for a fraction of a second and reveal the person's true emotion, underneath their facade. Some people may be naturally sensitive to them but almost anybody can train themselves to detect these micro-expressions. Typically, in a person who is lying, his or her micro-expression will exhibit the emotion of distress, characterized by the eyebrows being drawn upwards towards the middle of the forehead, thus sometimes causing short lines to appear across the forehead skin.

Look for nose touching and mouth covering. People tend to touch the nose more when lying and a great deal less when telling the truth. A lying person is more likely to cover his or her mouth with a hand or to place the hands near the mouth, almost as if to cover the lies coming forth.If the mouth appears tense and the lips are pursed, this can indicate distress 

Notice the person's eye movements. You can usually tell if a person is remembering something or making something up based on eye movements. When people remember details, their eyes move to the left if they are right-handed. When right-handed people make something up, their eyes move to the right. The reverse is true of left-handed people. People also tend to blink more rapidly ("eye flutter") as they're telling a lie. More common in men than in women, another tell of a lie can be rubbing the eyes.

    Watch the eyelids. These tend to close longer than the usual blink when a person sees or hears something he or she doesn't agree with. However, this can be a very minute change, so you will need to know how the person blinks normally during a non-stressful situation for accurate comparison. If the hands or fingers also go to the eyes, this may be another indicator of trying to "block out" the truth.

Do not use eye contact or lack of it as a sole indicator of truthfulness. Contrary to popular belief, a liar does not always avoid eye contact. Humans naturally break eye contact and look at non-moving objects to help them focus and remember. Liars may deliberately make eye contact to seem more sincere; this can be practiced to overcome any discomfort, as a way of "proving" that truth is being told. Indeed, it has been shown that some liars tend to increase the level of eye contact in response to the fact that investigators have often considered eye contact as a tell. Clearly, only use eye aversion as one indicator in a general context of increasing distress when being asked difficult questions

Body language giveaways 

Watch when the person nods. If the head is nodding or shaking in opposition to what is being said, this can be a tell. For example, a person might say that he or she did something, such as "I cleaned those pots thoroughly" while shaking the head, revealing the truth that the pots were wiped briefly but not scrubbed. Unless a person is trained well, this is an easy unconscious mistake to make and such a physical response is often the truthful one. Also, a person may hesitate before nodding when giving an answer. A truthful person tends to nod in support of a statement or answer at the same time it is being given; when someone is trying to deceive, a delay may occur.

Observe the level of mirroring. We naturally mirror the behavior of others with whom we're interacting; it's a way of establishing rapport and showing interest. When lying, mirroring may drop as the liar spends a lot of effort on creating another reality for the listener. Some examples of failed mirroring that might alert you that something's not right include:

• Leaning away. When a person is telling the truth or has nothing to hide, he or she tends to lean toward the listener. On the other hand, a liar will be more likely to lean backward, a sign of not wanting to impart more information than is necessary.Leaning away can also mean dislike or disinterest.
• An inability or unwillingness to mirror the listener's movements. In people telling the truth, head movements and body gestures tend to be mirrored as part of the interplay between the speaker and the listener. A person trying to deceive may be reluctant to do this, so signs of not copying gestures or head movements could indicate an attempt to cover up. You might even spot a deliberate action to move a hand back to another position or to turn a different way.

 Watch the person's throat. A person may constantly be trying to lubricate their throat when they lie by swallowing, gulping or clearing their throat to relieve the tension built up.

Check breathing. A liar tends to breathe faster, displaying a series of short breaths followed by one deep breath. The mouth may appear dry (causing much throat clearing).

Notice the behavior of other body parts. Watch the person's hands, arms and legs. In a non-stressful situation, people tend to be comfortable and take up space by being expansive in hand and arm movements, perhaps sprawling their legs comfortably. In a lying person, these parts of the body will tend to be limited, stiff, and self-directed. The person's hands may touch his or her face, ear, or the back of the neck. Folded arms, interlocked legs and lack of hand movements can be a sign of not wanting to give away information.

• Liars tend to avoid hand gestures that we consider a normal part of discussion or conversation. For example, most liars will avoid finger pointing, open palm gestures, stippling (fingertips touching each other in a triangle shape often associated with thinking out loud), etc. However, these movements tend to be second nature in people trained to work in public, such as politicians, CEOs and actors, so the presence of them doesn't necessarily indicate truthfulness in all people.
• Be careful! Liars can deliberately slouch to appear "at ease". Yawning and bored behavior may be a sign of trying to act just a little casual about the situation so as to cover up deception.
• Check the knuckles. Liars who stay motionless may grip the sides of a chair or other object until the knuckles turn white, not even noticing it's happening.
• Grooming behaviors are common in liars, such as playing with their hair. Just check that the person isn't flirting with you though!
• Keep in mind that these signals may be a sign of nervousness and not a sign of deceit. They might not necessarily be nervous because they're lying.

 Check for sweating. People tend to sweat more when they lie.Yet again, taken on its own, this is not always a reliable indication of lying. Some people may sweat a lot more just because of nervousness, shyness or a condition that causes the person to sweat more than normal. It's one indicator to be read along with a group of signs, such as trembling, blushing and difficulty in swallowing.