5 Ways To Know When You Are Being Lied To

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth barely has a chance to get its pants on — Winston Churchill

Everybody lies. Lying as a characteristic is not just limited to humans. In fact, Koko a gorilla, who reached new heights of fame in the ’80s for mastering sign language, once blamed her pet kitten ‘All Ball’ for ripping a sink out of the wall. Poor little All Ball had no idea that the animal that would cuddle her every day was blaming her for breaking a sink because she had been bad that particular day.

Lying is one of the most primary traits we learn soon after we are born. Babies learn to fake a cry to get your attention, giving you the feeling that maybe they are not feeling alright. It is only when you fall for it you realize that even a six-month-old can outsmart you on its day with a cute lie.

Pamela Meyer, author of the book Lie Spotting aptly points out that lying is a cooperative act. The harsh truth is that if you were lied to and felt betrayed or hurt it is because you allowed it to happen. An average person lies about 1.65 times a day. From little white lies, like that's a nice song or honey, that dress looks great on you to more serious lies that result in hurting people and making them feel betrayed, understanding when you are being lied to helps you be more reflective of yourself and the situation around you.

Five of the easy and effective techniques you can use in everyday life to spot a lie are as follows:

Convey vs Convince

One of the most effective strategies you can use to gauge whether someone is lying to you or not is by interpreting their answers. Former CIA officer Susan Carnicero in her book Spy the Lie highlights that when people want to hide the truth from you, they unknowingly try to convince you with their answers rather than convey them to you.

The easiest way to spot this trend is when you ask someone a question, and they talk for anywhere between seven to ten minutes, but not once do they answer your question. This sort of behaviour is seen quite often when politicians or businessmen who are on the wrong side of the law