"When a liar becomes hostile or defensive, he is attempting to turn the tables on you," says Glass. The liar will get hostile because he is angry that you've discovered his lies, which may result in a lot of pointing.
Our anger at being lied to is so strong, and that damage is so profound, because lies are at heart a violation of trust, a feeling powerfully connected to nothing less than our instincts for survival.
Denial is a common reaction when an innocent person is accused, which is why liars will sometimes attempt to deny your accusations. The catch, though, is that because they're acting, their denials tend to be over the top.
Pathological lying is a symptom of various personality disorders, including antisocial, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders. Other conditions, such as borderline personality disorder, may also lead to frequent lies, but the lies themselves are not considered pathological.
Guilt is most likely when the liar shares values and respects the target of the lie. It is much harder to lie or cheat someone who has acted fairly. But if the wages are too low, the spouse cold and inconsiderate, the parent too strict – the liar may feel entitled to cheat, and feel no guilt about doing so.
Itching and fidgeting: Rocking the body back and forth, cocking the head to the side or shuffling the feet can also be signs of deception, says Glass, who completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA focusing on Psychology and Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication.
Lies are told for one of two reasons: either the deceptive person believes they have more to gain from lying than from telling the truth; or the deceptive person is incapable of discerning what the truth is, either temporarily or owing to some permanent mental defect.
Pathological lying is not a formal diagnosis, but a doctor or therapist may recognize the behavior as a sign of another underlying condition, such as a personality disorder or factitious disorder. These disorders include overlapping symptoms, including compulsive lying.
"When a liar becomes hostile or defensive, he is attempting to turn the tables on you," says Glass. The liar will get hostile because he is angry that you've discovered his lies, which may result in a lot of pointing.
“We conducted four studies showing that people think that anger is a cue to guilt, and two studies showing that people who are falsely accused, versus rightfully accused, are actually more likely to be angry,” Adams said.
They alter our reality, reframing it through the agenda of the person who doesn't want the truth to come out. Being lied to makes you feel insecure – your version of the truth is discredited. It also makes you feel unimportant – the person lying to you didn't value you enough to tell the truth.
According to DeCelles and colleagues—from the University of Toronto, University of Virginia, Duke University, and Harvard University—a suspect's angry reaction to being accused is often used as an indicator of the person's guilt, even though “such anger is an invalid cue of guilt and is instead a valid cue of innocence ...
Lying Changes the Brain
Nature Neuroscience reported a study of the amygdala, the part of the brain dealing with emotional responses. The researchers said the amygdala shows up less and less, as we lie more and more. Essentially, our guilt feelings tend to weaken and shrink.
While multiple challenges exist to accurately detect deception, our data strongly suggested that it may be so difficult to catch liars because it requires more cognitive work to identify false rather than true statements.
Liars withhold information
Even though good liars can remember small details, they know it's best to avoid getting tangled up in too much information. Liars will also purposefully leave details out of their fabricated stories as a way to manipulate you. Remember: not telling the whole truth is still considered lying.
The study authors found that those who consider themselves good liars used a mix of four verbal tactics: “keeping the statement clear and simple,” “telling a plausible story,” “using avoidance/being vague about details,” and “embedding the lie into an otherwise truthful story.” Essentially, the best liars tell clear, ...
A review of studies on the perception of speech cues to lying delineates a stereotypical image of a liar. Listeners expect liars to speak more slowly, pause longer, and speak with a higher pitched voice.
Leal and Vrij (2008) examined blink rates in liars and truth tellers during and after verbal recall of events and found that liars showed a decrease in blink rate during deception as compared with a baseline period and an increase in blink rate in the period following the telling of the lie.
You detect a frown or smirk for just an instant.
This can indicate that deep-down, a liar doubts themselves. Their facial expression doesn't align with their story, says Constantine. Conversely, if someone's just lied to you (and they think you've bought their story), they might smirk or let out a tiny laugh.