10 Simple Ways to Catch a Liar in the Act

Everybody lies once in a while, sometimes to bring joy (well that’s a rare case), sometimes to hide some things, sometimes to walk around guilt free and sometimes just out of maliciousness. People lie mainly to hide some things or to not get the blame.

Come on, you have done it too. I am one of you so I’ve done it too. Somebody is lying somewhere right now as you read this article. Now, I am not a pessimist or something, I am not saying that nobody is trustworthy. It’s just that you should know when a person is lying to your face (and when it definitely is not good for anyone, if it is then you should probably let it go). What would you do if someone is making up something and you don’t know it, and so the guilty walks away? So, here are some tips to catch a liar in the act.

10. HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY, THAT’S WHAT A LIAR WOULD SAY THE MOST

When dealing with a liar, concentrate on the words he uses. The most common phrases coming out of his mouth would be “Believe me!” or “honestly!” or “to tell you the truth…blah blah blah” and many more. When this person fills the conversation with these words, that’s when you stop believing him. The story he is telling you, 99% chances are, is a lie.

9. WHAT’S UP WITH THE VOICE AND THE TONE?

If you think that the person in front of you is lying to you, a way to confirm this is to observe the changes in his/her voice or tone. A person who is lying will definitely be in stress, thus his/her voice and tone or the way of speaking will be different than the usual. If the person starts to stammer and stutter in mid-conversation or in the middle of his/her story, there is your cue.

8. CAN YOU PLEASE REPEAT THAT FOR ME?

If you think that the story Mr. X just told you is totally made up, here is a way to confirm whether it is or not. Listen to the story and pretend that you believe him, talk on a totally different topic, and then tell him to repeat the story again. If this does not work out for you here’s what you can do. Ask him about the details. Put up questions after questions (you can do this either way, may be to spice the things up a li’l bit). If you do this there will be some changes in the stories, every time. There will be some loopholes which he will not be able to explain.

7. OH MY, YOU ARE SWEATING LIKE A SINNER IN A CHURCH!

You probably know this one if you are a fan of detective shows. A policeman confronts the criminal and he starts sweating whilst telling him a lie. It is very typical if you ask me.
The reason behind it is that while a person is coming up with a lie he is in a quite stressful situation, and stress can make you perspire. So keep an eye out for the perspiring liar.

6. SO, YEAH, I WAS SAYING THAT…UMM (LONG PAUSE)

If a person is lying and you catch him mid-phrase and ask a question that he/she was totally unprepared for, it’ll set him/her off-guard. He/she will hesitate and take an unusually long pause. This is because he/she is making up a brand new answer to compliment your question.

This scenario can occur without you asking any questions. You see, many times a liar makes up the story while talking to you. So while he is coming up with what to say next it is obvious that he/she will take unnatural pauses between sentences. That is a hint for you.

5. I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ASKED ME THAT *STORMS OUT OF THE ROOM*

Generally when a person is lying, he/she will not welcome the rain of questions open-heartedly. There will be some pointing and some shouting, surely a lot of drama. As soon as you start asking questions there will be dialogues like, “I can’t believe you just said that…” or “don’t you trust me?” or “You are just insecure” or many other lines full of false pain and agony and anger. If not that then he/she will try to avoid the whole interrogation thing by walking out of the room full of rage. Do not fall for that. This is just one more hint that this person is lying to you.

4. THAT IS JUST OUT OF HIS CHARACTER

If a person is acting weird and plainly out of their usual character, it is a hint that he/she is hiding something. When a person is lying he /she will act strange and not quite normal while doing it. If you want to confirm the fact that this person is lying then observe him/her carefully on his/her usual (normal non-lying) day. This way you can establish the baseline of his/her character. This can be done by asking random questions to that person, to which he will reply truthfully. You can compare the reactions you get to these questions with the reactions while he was telling you the lie.

3. THE BODY LANGUAGE AND THE STRANGE BEHAVIORS

A person will show strange body gestures while lying. He/she will fidget more often or play with their hair, wipe their faces, mess around with their clothes, play with whatever comes in their hands, scratch the nose, rub his lips, et cetera. The fidgeting and fussing will continue throughout the conversation.

One more thing worth noticing is the lip-licking. A person who is lying will settle for excessive lip-licking. Not just lip-licking, he/she will take up to repeating any physical behavior.

2. LOOK INTO MY EYES AND SAY IT

Yeah, this is a common phrase. Almost everybody have listened to this line in some typical Bollywood film or some soapy TV series. Well, the truth is that a liar, when talking to you, cannot maintain an eye contact with you. He will avoid looking into your eyes. He will stare mostly into space or any non-living object that comes in front of him. Mostly his eyes will wander around the room. All this to avoid eye contact with you.

If he somehow manages to look into your eyes while the whole story telling time, he is just trying to make a prolonged eye contact to you. He is just doing that to make you believe that he is not lying. If it seemed effortless then it took a lot of practice for him to do that. If not then he tried his best. In any case he will do this job to convince you.

1. PAY ATTENTION TO THE EXPRESSIONS

Expressions can tell you a lot more than words ever could. If a person is lying to you, the first thing to look out for will be his/her expressions. While lying the expressions of his/her face will change just for a teeny-tiny second, but that will be enough to tell you the truth if you are paying enough attention.

P.S. To catch a liar, you can also go with your sixth sense. Sometimes your intuition can set you at the right path. If you gut says the person is lying then most probably he is.