Apart from inborn gestures in body language such as facial expressions that are basic and universal, people can always feign body language gestures. Most of the time, the nurtured gestures are always deployed by liars to cover up their inadequacies. If you do not scrutinize people’s expressions and their bodily behaviors, you will always be taken for a fool. Before going fully into the discussion, let me note that body language can be a function of both nature and nurture. The uncontrollable signs, those that are out of the reach of men are referred to as a nature while those people keep tab on and adjust while in a conversation are referred to as nurtured. We will focus on the latter in this article.
Some, in a bid to be depicted as being caring try to put on a fake smile. To anyone that cares, this can be easily recognized. At different points in time, scholars have always agreed that a genuine smile is almost impossible to imitate. This is why many of us end up with awkward family photos. We may think we look like we’re smiling, but to most anyone it looks like we’re faking it. This is because your smile is in your eyes, or, more specifically, the wrinkles around them. You display a few crow’s feet when you smile genuinely because your smile pushes up your cheeks which bunches up the skin near your eyes. It’s fairly hard to fake this. You need to feel some sort of genuine happy emotion at the time to do it, and when you’re uncomfortable this is next to impossible. This is why a non-genuine smile can be a helpful indicator of a lie in progress (Dachis, 2011). Anyone who displays a non-genuine smile is giving out a nurtured gesture.
Another common nurtured gesture mostly made use by liars is stiffening of their upper body and maintaining too much eye contact. This is referred to as over-compensation. Since they are aware of the convention that when people tell lies, they look away, in order to break this norm, they overcompensate by not doing it in a natural manner—this betrays their antics. When this unsettles them, their body will become stiff because they’re attempting not to fidget. Normally, people move and do not hold eye contact for extended periods of time. When uncomfortable, however, people will often rub their neck or eyes and look away to the side. Rather than exhibit the positive body language that would imply comfort, liars tend to opt for doing very little. This, in and of itself, is an indicator. Look for tense shoulders and an unusually high amount of eye contact and you’ll be more likely to spot a liar (Dachis, 2011).
Another gesture is how the head position is being changed. If the change is not natural, it is questionable. If you see someone suddenly make a head movement when you ask them a direct question, they may be lying to you about something. In such a case, their head will be retracted or jerked backward, tilted or bowed (Cain, 2018). Also, when people are gripped with fear, you can easily notice the signs written over them but in a bid to cover them up, there may be various signs of over-control. For example, there may be signs of attempted friendly body language, such as forced smiles (mouth smiles but eyes do not), jerky movements and clumsiness. The person may also try to hold their body still, to avoid tell-tale signals. For example they may hold their arms in or put their hands in their pockets. This can be particularly seen when they emphasizing something with their voice and their body does not align, showing limited (or exaggerated) emphasis (Changing Minds, 2018).
Face hiding is also another instance of nurtured gesture. Ordinarily, when people are free, they are eager to show you their face and communicate with you without borders but the moment they know something is at risk which can always be fished out in their face, they tend to hide themselves from you. This is not the natural behavior of humans. They may also cover their mouth or persistently touch their nose. Slowing blinking rate is another sign in this category. Usually when people tell lies, their blinking rate increases and this can always sell them out. So, instead of criminals to allow the blinking rate flow naturally, they lower it that it becomes slower than expected.
It is important to remember, however, that some people are just awkward and exhibit this kind of behavior with regularity. You should take the way a person normally acts into consideration as well. Watch their mannerisms and eye movements when you know they’re telling the truth and compare that to the times when you think they’re lying. This is known as the concept of baselining. That is, you have the ability to distinguish between a person’s normal and ‘abnormal’ behaviors. This can be very hard to establish with a stranger given the time limit and low interaction level. In an interview setting, you can be dexterous by taking out the first few minutes to engage the person casually at the reception before moving in for the real work. When you see consistent change when certain statements are made, you’ll know how this specific person acts when they’re thinking of what to say rather than recalling information. Again, this or anything else previously mentioned isn’t sufficient in detecting lies. You have to look for multiple cues or what you’ll just discover that you’re fooling yourself into believing you know the difference between fact and fiction. This is known as clustering. Before you can accuse anyone of falsehood, be sure you have sufficient information that justifies your claim (Dachis, 2011).
References
Cain, A (2017). 11 Signs Someone Might be Lying to You. Retrieved from https://www.pulse.ng/bi/strategy/11-signs-someone-might-be-lying-to-you-id8923946.html
Changing Minds (2018).Deceptive Body Language. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/techniques/body/deceptive_body.htm
Dachis, A (2011). How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any Situation. Retrieved from https://lifehacker.com/5852572/how-to-read-and-utilize-body-language-to-reveal-the-truth-in-almost-any-situation
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