As mentioned above, the liar's attention is very out of focus.

Many would like to know how to determine the lie of the interlocutor: during business meetings, so as not to sign an unfavorable contract; when communicating with a wife, husband or friends, to find out if they are sincere; while talking with children, and in hundreds of other situations. And now you can learn this by carefully studying the material from the article.

Recognizing lies is science

Not so long ago, recognition of lies has become a kind of science. People began to find a relationship between what a person says and how he behaves.

That is, knowing some of the mechanisms of human behavior, you can determine whether he is telling the truth or everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. How to do it?

Now we will analyze this issue in detail, and you will learn how to recognize a lie by:

• Voice
• Facial expressions and gestures
• Look

These are the highlights. The next kind of level is empathy. That is, recognizing a person's emotions, experiencing his feelings with him. But here we will omit this question, since it is very difficult for independent study.

How to recognize lies by voice and speech

• High pitched tone of voice

During a conversation, the person who wants to deceive you cannot completely control himself. His attention is sprayed on many things so as not to betray the deception. Therefore, the tone of his voice changes from time to time: because of this inner confusion.

When a person lies - and even more ineptly - emotions simply rage in him. He seems to be walking through a minefield. Therefore, it is possible to determine by voice what state the interlocutor is in: if high notes slip through him - most likely, he is hiding something; if he speaks in a calm, low voice, he is most likely speaking the truth.

• Pauses in speech

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When the fingers are near the lips, it most likely indicates that the human body seems to be telling him: “Stop telling a lie! Stop it! ”. Therefore, he unintentionally begins to cover his mouth with his hand.

When the interlocutor touches his nose, he tries to take his hands away from his mouth. So that it looks natural: “What? My nose itched up. ”

Touching the ear indicates that the person does not want to listen to his lies. This all happens on a subconscious level. That is, everything happens involuntarily; as if in the background.

Eye contact is an attempt to avoid contact with the interlocutor. People in a stressful situation are afraid that they can see everything from their eyes. Therefore, they do their best to hide their eyes.

• Frequent intermittent breathing and sweating

We remember that a liar is subject to intense stress. Therefore, his breathing and sweating becomes as if he just played sports.

If a person is telling the truth, he has nothing to worry about. Therefore, when you notice these signs, think about it.

• Expression of boredom for show

Experienced liars are not easy to catch. They never act too emotionally. One of the techniques they use is to openly express boredom: open posture, yawn, smile, slow speech.

If a person does not usually behave like this, then he purposely "reprogrammed" his body language.

• Turning the head to the sides

A liar can turn his head to signal that he is abandoning his words. These left-right turns are similar to the way we show “no” (the opposite movement is a nod for “yes”), but slightly weaker. Not so open.

• Fake smile

Also, the interlocutor may hide behind a fake smile to reduce the level of mistrust on your part. How is it different from the usual one? When a person smiles sincerely, they develop small folds in the corners of their eyes. And when it is insincere, only the mouth is involved.

In order to more accurately track lies by facial expressions - try to check each item yourself, in front of the mirror. For example, smile at yourself without using the muscles around your eyes.

How to recognize a lie in your eyes

• Avoiding eye contact

The liar will often try to avoid eye contact. Usually, most of the time - 60-80% - his gaze will supposedly assess the environment, raised up - thinking about something, or down - “considering something interesting”.

• Frequent blinking

If a person does not have eye problems, then frequent blinking indicates his excitement. Does he have a reason for this? If not, then most likely what he says is a lie.

• Feigned surprise

When a person is genuinely surprised, his eyebrows are raised. If a person just wants to pretend that he is glad to see you, then his intonation in his voice will only increase.

How to bring a liar to clean water

• Ask him to tell his story in reverse chronological order.

Coming up with stories is one thing. But if you try to turn a nonexistent story upside down, then, most likely, you get a mess. Try it yourself! Only a person with a very fast thinking speed is capable of this.

• Ask as many questions as possible about details

As we said above, liars are weak at coming up with details. Therefore, try to learn as much as possible about them: colors, objects, people, conversations - whatever.

• Be silent and express open disbelief

Try to drive the liar into a state of severe stress: openly tell him that you do not believe; be silent and gaze into his eyes. So he will begin to try to convince you otherwise. Thanks to this, many additional elements will be revealed, through which he can fall for a lie.

It is not always possible to recognize a lie 100%

Everything that is described here is not 100% signs of identifying liars. They just indicate that a person is either trying to hide something, or he is not sure of his words.

Remember 2 rules:

1. Not a single method, not a single detail gives accurate information: neither facial expressions, nor gestures, nor the use of a lie detector.
2. Don't blame the person for lying based on guesswork. The information from the article is a kind of guideline. She can only direct you towards the truth.

The human factor plays a huge role. Therefore, it is so difficult to prove anything by facial expressions and gestures, voice or eyes.

How to get as close as possible to the truth

In order to master the skill of identifying lies by gestures, facial expressions and eyes as accurately as possible, you need to learn to compare all the factors in one picture, and not look at them separately.

That is, look at all the gestures of lies as one mechanism.

Keeping track of everything requires a lot of practice and a deeper study of the topic: read books - it's good, now there are a huge number of them on the Internet; browse the materials of experts in this topic - you can also find them in the public domain. And you will succeed!

It has long been no secret that all people lie. They can cheat on little things or more important things. Those who do not want to become their victim should be prepared for this turn of events and learn to recognize lies. To do this, you need to have extensive experience in communicating with people and constantly train your own observation skills. Learning to understand people is quite difficult, but still possible. Most often, lies are determined by eyes, facial expressions and gestures.

Eyes are a mirror ...

When a person lies, it is his eyes that often give him away. Having a desire, you can learn to control gestures or facial expressions, or think over a story to the smallest detail, but you will hardly be able to control eye movements. During a lie, a person feels very insecure and uncomfortable, so he tries to look away. If the interlocutor does not look directly in the eyes, this can be considered as the first sign of deception.

But it's not that simple. Almost everyone knows how to detect lies in the eyes, so they use the "by contradiction" method. If a person looks straight ahead with an unblinking gaze, perhaps he wants to justify himself. An overly honest look often testifies to the truthfulness of the interlocutor's words. One gets the impression that he wants to penetrate the thoughts of the opponent and understand whether he believes him. And if the liar is caught by surprise, most likely he will try to divert attention or go to another room.

It is almost impossible to control, so the person who is lying changes their gaze. The pupil becomes much smaller than usual.

Blood to face ...

Detecting lies by the eyes is not the only way to recognize lies. When a person tells a lie, tiny wrinkles appear around his eyes. Sometimes you can even see them with the naked eye. If there are doubts about the sincerity of the opponent's words, it is worth closely observing his skin around his eyes.

Four cardinal points

Thinking about the eyes, you can observe the direction in which the interlocutor is looking. If his gaze is directed to the right, then he is deceiving. When people look up and straight, it means that at this moment they come up with a picture or image for themselves. To represent sounds or a phrase, the person will look to the right and straight ahead. When the script is ready, the deceiver will shift his gaze to the right and down. But these rules only apply when the person is right-handed. In a left-handed person, the position of the eyes when lying is the opposite.

If the gaze quickly moves from one object to another, then this is also a reason to think about how to determine a lie by the eyes.

Guilt

Knowing the basic secrets, you can easily determine whether a person is cheating or not. Many people during a lying story experience At this time, the eyes go down, and sometimes to the side. To identify lies, it is necessary to compare the movements of the eyeballs with the words spoken by the opponent.

"Fixed" eyes

Psychologists are sure that a frozen gaze is a sign that a person is telling a lie. To check this, it is enough to ask the interlocutor to remember some detail. If he keeps staring straight and doesn't blink, chances are he can't be trusted. In the case when the opponent answers the question posed without hesitation and without changing the position of the eyes, one can suspect him of insincerity. When the number of blinks increases, this indicates that the person feels uncomfortable and wants to withdraw from the outside world.

But the definition of lies by the eyes in this way is not fair in the case when the events took place ten to fifteen minutes ago. Also, do not get hung up on a fixed gaze when a person provides very important information for him, for example, an address or phone number.

A sharp look away

When communicating with a person, you can sometimes notice how he quickly averts his eyes to the side during the story, and then again looks at the interlocutor. It is very likely that such his actions indicate that he is trying to hide something.

If the whole conversation the interlocutor looked directly and openly, and when touching on a certain topic began to look away or avoid direct contact, then this is one of the signs of how to recognize a lie by the eyes. But sometimes insecure and insecure people behave this way if the topic of the conversation makes them feel uncomfortable. In this case, it makes no sense to talk about deception on the basis of this feature alone.

Frightened facial expression

The person who deceives is always afraid of being exposed. Therefore, during a conversation, he may have a little scared. But only an experienced psychologist can distinguish him from the usual embarrassment in front of a stranger or an unusual situation.

Eyes are not the only indicator of a lie. When analyzing the behavior of the interlocutor, it is worth evaluating the complete picture: pay attention to gestures, posture and facial expressions. Any information about a person will be useful in order to correctly match words and a "picture". Therefore, it is not worth doing.

Mimicry while lying

Knowing the position of the eyes when lying is important, but not enough. It is necessary to observe the person's speech, his movements and behavior. During a false story, changes will certainly be noticeable. It is necessary to evaluate facial expressions and gestures only in conjunction with speech and voice parameters.

Intonation and smile

When the other person is cheating, his speech and intonation will change. The voice may tremble, and the words are pronounced more slowly or, conversely, faster. Some people develop hoarseness or high notes slip. If the interlocutor is shy, then he may start to stutter.

A smile can also tell you insincerity. Many people smile a little when they tell a lie. The interlocutor should be alerted if the smile is completely inappropriate. This facial expression allows you to hide a little awkwardness and excitement. But this does not apply to cheerful people who always try to smile.

Facial muscle tension

If you look at your opponent very carefully, you can figure out whether he is cheating or not. It will be given by micro-tension of the facial muscles, which lasts a few seconds. No matter how “stony” the interlocutor speaks, instant tension is still inevitable.

The deceiver betrays not only the position of the eyes when lying, but also the uncontrollable skin and other parts of the face. The most common are: lip twitching, rapid blinking, or skin discoloration.

Lying gestures

Well-known experts agreed that when a person cheats, he performs typical actions:

• touches the face with his hands;
• covers his mouth;
• scratches nose, rubs eyes, or touches ear;
• pulls back the collar on the clothes.

But all these gestures can speak of lies only when there are other signs of deception. Therefore, the most reliable is the definition of lies by eyes, facial expressions, movements and behavior. Learning to diagnose a lie can help you avoid being a victim and always feel confident.

As practice shows, the person who often communicates with other people is capable of accurately recognizing lies. He should also be able to soberly perceive the situation and events, be attentive and try to notice all the nuances and subtleties of their behavior. Rich communication experience and ability to analyze will help to correctly perceive all the information received and evaluate its reliability.

The following methods recognition of lies people are used by police, forensic psychologists, security experts and other investigators. It is a basic run of physical gestures (language gestures) and verbal cues that indicate signs of lying.

This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers and for those who can use in everyday situations, it will prevent you from becoming a victim of lies / fraud, etc.

The surest sign of truth is simplicity and clarity. Lies are always difficult, pretentious and wordy.

Lev Tolstoy

Now, I want to be very clear and believe that there are no factors, such as gestures, body movements, eye movements or facial expressions, that are the defining signs of a lie. Although there are some that occur naturally, such as changes in heart rate, activity of neurons and nerves.

Why don't I believe? For the simple reason that there are people who are masters of lies, psychopathic and antisocial personalities who love to make people suffer, violate the rights of others and violate all rules and regulations. Therefore, they know how to deal with both signs of lying and feelings of remorse, compassion, or guilt that lead to outward signs that they are lying.

On the other hand, there are people who are trained to hide information, therefore, you need to be an expert to extract the truth from them.

However, don't count on this article to make you an expert on signs of human lies.

The first sign of a lie: fear, hesitation, unusual disorder or concern, evasiveness, explanation without reason, protection, unusual aggressiveness or suspicious behavior of the person. These may be some of the external signs of a lie that the subject cannot hide by lying about a particular situation.

Another sign of a person's lying is situations with direct questions. You will notice bias towards the problem through refusals, excuses, and explanations that you did not ask about. However, I don’t want to create paranoid people, especially when confidence is at stake, so we don’t have to conclude that they are lying to us if we don’t have key evidence.

Second sign of lying: inconsistency, personality changes, mood changes (emotional lability), such as anger for no reason, symptoms of remorse or guilt. However, many people are capable of suppressing enough conscience, so the main sign of lying is inconsistency. You cannot say one thing and do another. If the actions generally do not correspond to their speeches, or if their explanations do not correspond to reality, and suspicions begin to arise, we can already perceive as something deceitful.

Usually when most of those who lie get stuck in an attitude. Attitude change is not as easy to control as guilt, because it involves reflecting thoughts. If the subject has changed the attitude, which is clearly visible, we already have a key element.

The third sign of lying: witnessing all the inconsistencies together creating a map that reveals a lie, just to see the signs of a lie with our own eyes.

There are no non-verbal signs of lying that are the same for all people.

The liar thinks more about what he is saying and less about his non-verbal communication. It is easier to manipulate words than expressions and micro-expressions of emotions.

There are three main reasons non-verbal behavior can reveal lies:

• Lying causes stress, fear and effort that translates into observable expressions and gestures. Non-verbal signals express emotions of fear or unwillingness to lie.
• Overemphasis on information control leads to artificial actions with little emotion, small gestures and movements that reveal the incongruity between verbal and non-verbal language.

Facial Micro Expressions

Facial micro-expressions are very fast movements that appear in conversation, cover the entire face and alternate between normal facial expressions. They are unexpected and appear in the context of little emphasis during a conversation. They take less than twenty seconds and are very difficult to perceive with the naked eye. Research has found that people who lie tend to mimic their facial expressions, but cannot avoid these quick expressions that betray them.

Smile and laugh

One of the usual ways to hide emotions.

In research by Ekman and O'Sullivan, smiling is used to mask negative emotional expressions such as worry and fear. A liar uses a smile to hide his true emotions. The muscles that produce the smile, especially the contraction of the zygomatic muscle, have an effect on stretching the corners of the lips along the sides and upward.

On the other hand, a real smile is accompanied by a contraction of the eye circumference, which raises the lower eyelid, partially covering the eyes.

Nervous laughter is a typical sign of a lie.

Gestures

People use one or both hands in conversation to brighten up the conversation with gestures. The person who lies arranges gestures to amplify verbal responses, and they tend to be artificial. Use fewer anti-gravity movements such as raising eyebrows, which demonstrate conviction and faith in words, especially at the end of a sentence to add emphasis.

An elusive gaze indicates a sign of a lie. Therefore, engaging in eye activity is the most common way to evaluate a lie. Many people think this is the best indicator. However, individual or cultural factors can influence the establishment of eye contact. Looking away is a sign of stress.

Verbal cues are verbal signs of lies, such as the tone of voice, the stories they tell, because telling a lie takes real effort. While there is no surefire way to know 100 percent of a lie, there are things by which you can roughly identify the signs of a lie.

Vote

In situations of anxiety and stress, the human voice becomes sharper and the tone rises. A person has difficulty modeling voice and intonation. Mild aphonia may appear. It is necessary to pay attention to voice changes on key issues. However, the lack of change is not a sign of veracity.

Rhythm of speech

Speech has a consistent almost rhythmic pattern. When someone is nervous, this pattern becomes slower, inconsistent, and erroneous due to nervousness and mental effort.

Filtering words

Because lying takes effort, words don't flow so smoothly when someone tells a lie. This means that someone who is lying must pause frequently to consider the words before they say them.

Fill words such as ah, uh .. uh ... in moments of hesitation, they often slip out when someone is lying. These filler words, called phrases, can offer clues about the speaker's intentions.

They repeat or paraphrase questions

Instead of giving you a direct answer, you may hear a repeated response or notice a slight pause between responses. The person may also ask you to repeat the question, even though you know you heard you for the first time. This is a tactic that liars use to buy time before responding.

Someone who is lying may also rephrase the question by giving the answer. For example, a conversation might look something like this:

You say: I already told you not to be around Tracy, so why were you?

They say: you told me not to be around Tracy, so I wasn't.

You say, I saw your car on First Avenue this morning?

They say: My car was not on First Avenue this morning.

They stutter

Stuttering and the use of filler words go hand in hand because both are almost involuntary reactions to telling lies. Stuttering, however, is more like breaks and repetitions in words, rather than breaks in sentences. Therefore, you may hear someone say, “I have never stayed at a mall,” for example. Anxiety is one of the main causes of stuttering, and lying can definitely make a person worry.

You cannot see the person you are talking to. There are beeps that can help you recognize a lie over the phone. Here are 6 tips that you may find helpful in recognizing lies from phone calls.

Throat clearing

Telling lies is hard work. This can lead to actual physical changes. The strain of false reaction can cause an almost instantaneous redirection of moisture to our skin.
Therefore, the moisture normally present in your throat suddenly disappears for this reason, unless you are a skilled liar.

Difficult answers

Direct questions are usually answered with the same short and direct answers. You may have legitimate reason to doubt if someone you are talking to on the phone gives an answer that sounds more like trying to convince you than giving an answer to your question.
This possibility increases if instead of the answer comes defensive language, for example: "What did you mean by asking me about this?" Or "I'm not very concerned that my answer is not what you wanted to hear."

Information overload

People who tell lies often try to make them more persuasive, including unnecessary information or complex answers that have little or no bearing on the question. This is an attempt to be more persuasive - the mistaken belief that a long answer dispels suspicion.

Unexpected compliments

People who avoid the truth find that an unexpected compliment can help to disrupt the conversation.
You're in luck if anyone tries to use this tactic, because it's obvious. A compliment - instead of a response - will seem out of place.

According to statistics, each person manages to lie at least 4 times a day, since the truth often contradicts generally accepted standards of decency, ethics and even morality. How to recognize a lie, if no modern detector is able to give one hundred percent guarantee that what a person said is not a deception? Let's define the external signs of a lie that will give out the interlocutor.

What is not true

Often, deception is harmless when a person tells a lie out of politeness or a desire to please ("You look great!", "Very glad to meet you!"). Sometimes people have to remain silent about the whole truth or remain silent in response to uncomfortable questions out of unwillingness to escalate the situation, and this is also considered insincere.

However, psychologists argue that even a seemingly harmless lie can seriously harm a relationship, especially when it comes to understatement between family members: husband and wife, parents and children. Building mutual trust and maintaining strong family ties in these circumstances is difficult, so it is important to know how to recognize a lie from a man, woman, or child.

The observations of specialists in the field of psychology have shown certain results that relate to deception in the family:

1. despite their outward openness to the interlocutor, extroverts are more prone to lying than introverts;
2. children quickly learn to lie in authoritarian families, while doing it often and masterly;
3. parents who behave gently towards a child notice a lie immediately, since he rarely deceives and lies uncertainly;
4. the female sex is prone to deception when it comes to everyday things - they hide the price of purchased goods, do not talk about a broken cup or burnt dish, etc.;
5. men are prone to understatement in matters of relationships, they hide their dissatisfaction with a partner, have mistresses and confidently lie about their loyalty.

How to learn to recognize a lie?

To prevent the development of difficult family relationships based on deception, infidelity and understatement, it is important to learn to understand sincerity. Often the ability to bring a deceiver to the surface is a natural talent of a person who intuitively knows how to recognize a lie by facial expressions, gestures or intonation of the interlocutor. In this he is helped by life experience of communicating with liars, or natural observation.

This does not mean that anyone who wants to be able to identify deception without appropriate experience or talent. Currently, psychology has established some verbal and non-verbal signs of distortion of information, which are typical for most people. Thanks to a well-established methodology based on the understanding of such signals, each person will be able to develop the ability to recognize insincerity. Let's find out what is capable of betraying a liar.

Lie to Me is one of the few TV series that is based on a proven scientific hypothesis. The prototype of its protagonist, Dr. Cal Lightman, was a major expert in the psychology of emotions Paul Ekman. He found that, in terms of facial expressions, people of any culture express feelings in the same way, and discovered micromovements - short episodes of facial activity that indicate emotions - even when a person tries to hide them. T&P has put together a guide to Paul Ekman's technologies to help you learn to see lies.

For a long time, science did not pay any attention to facial expressions. For the first time, Charles Darwin took up her, among his other works published in 1872 the book "On the Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals." The scientist stated that facial expressions are universal not only for our species, but also for animals: for example, like dogs, people grin when they are angry. At the same time, Darwin argued that our gestures, unlike facial expressions, can be called conditional, and was sure that they depend on which culture a person belongs to.

For almost a century, this work of Darwin remained virtually forgotten. If it was recalled in scientific circles, it was only to challenge it. Only in the 30s of the XX century, the French neuroanatom Duchenne de Boulogne turned to her, who tried to refute the theory of the Nazi scientist, who argued that "representatives of lower races" can be recognized by gestures.

In the 60s, the hypotheses voiced in "On the Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals" and repeatedly mentioned by de Boulogne were popularized by the American psychologist Paul Ekman. He did a number of studies to test this theory, and found that Charles Darwin was right: in different cultures, gestures do differ, but facial expressions are not. Ekman's opponents argued that Hollywood and television, which broadcasts an average image of facial expressions, is largely taken as a standard in different countries. To challenge this assumption, in 1967 and 1968, the scientist investigated the facial expressions of representatives of one of the tribes in Papua New Guinea. These people have never been in close contact with either Western or Eastern culture and were at a stage of development similar to the Stone Age. Ekman found that in this case, too, basic emotions were expressed in the same ways as elsewhere. Facial Motion Coding System (FACS), a facial expression classification method originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in 1978 and based on a selection of photographs with associated emotions, has proven to be universal. This kind of musical notation for the face even today allows you to determine which facial movements a particular emotional expression consists of.

From surprise to contempt: seven universal emotions

There are only seven emotions that have a universal form of expression:

Surprise,
- fear,
- disgust,
- anger,
- joy,
- sadness,
- contempt.

They are all encrypted in FACS and EmFACS (an updated and expanded version of the system), so that each emotion can be found and identified by its characteristic features, assessing its intensity and degree of confusion with other feelings. For this, there are basic codes (for example, code 12: "Lip corner lifter", large zygomatic muscle), head movement codes, eye movement codes, visibility codes (for example, when you cannot see the eyebrows, you need to put code 70) and codes of general behavior, which allow you to record swallowing, shrugging, trembling, etc. "There are uncontrollable, unintentional facial expressions, as well as softened or feigned expressions in which the experienced emotion is weakened, or an emotion is simulated that is not being experienced at the moment," writes Paul Ekman in your book Recognize a Liar by Their Facial Expressions. Unintentional expressions always appear behind the "screen" created on the face. In this case, they can be identified by micromovements. Typically, such expressions only appear for a split second, so it takes practice to detect them.

There are three areas of the face on our face that can move independently:

Eyebrows and forehead;
- eyes, eyelids and nose bridge;
- lower face: cheeks, mouth, most of the nose and chin.

Each of them has its own pattern of movement in each of the seven cases. For example, in surprise, the eyebrows are raised, the eyes open wide, the jaws open, and then the lips open. Fear looks different: the eyebrows are raised and slightly drawn to the bridge of the nose; the upper eyelids are also raised, exposing the sclera, the lower eyelids are tense; the mouth is parted, and the lips are also slightly tense and pulled back.

Paul Ekman gives in his book a detailed map of micromovements for each universal emotion and offers photographs for independent practice. To use this book to quickly determine what feeling is expressed on a human face, you need to find a partner who will show you these photos - completely or covering part of the image with an L-shaped mask. The book also allows you to learn how to determine the degree of expression of emotions and recognize the components of mixed facial expressions: bittersweet sadness, frightened surprise, and so on.

Deceptive Expressions: Message Control

“It's easier to falsify words than facial expressions,” writes Paul Ekman. - We were all taught to speak, we all have a fairly large vocabulary and knowledge of the rules of grammar. There are not only spelling, but also encyclopedic dictionaries. You can write the text of your speech in advance. But try to do the same with your facial expression. You do not have any "dictionary of facial expressions" at your disposal. It is much easier to suppress what you say than what you show. "

According to Paul Ekman, a person who lies in facial expressions of his feelings or in his words usually seeks to satisfy his current need: a pickpocket pretends to be surprised, an unfaithful husband hides a smile of joy at the sight of his mistress, if his wife is nearby, and so on. “However, the word“ lie ”does not always correctly reflect what happens in these cases,” explains Ekman. “It assumes that the only important message is the message of the true feeling that underlies the false message. But a false message can also be significant if you know it is false. Instead of calling this process a lie, you should better call it message control, because a lie itself can also convey a useful message. "

In such cases, two messages are present on the person's face: one reflects the actual feeling, and the other - what he wants to convey. Paul Ekman first became deeply interested in this problem when he was faced with the behavior of patients suffering from severe depression. In conversations with doctors, they claimed (mimically and verbally) that they were feeling joy, but in reality they sought to achieve an end to their hospitalization and commit suicide. In Lie to Me, the writers also raise this issue: in the story, the mother of Dr. Cal Lightman committed suicide after she managed to deceive psychiatrists in this way. Later, watching videos of her conversations with doctors, the protagonist of the series discovers a micro-expression of sadness on her face.

Control of mimic messages can be different:

Mitigation,
- modulation,
- falsification.

Mitigation, as a rule, occurs by adding facial or verbal comments to the already present expression. For example, if an adult is afraid of the dentist, he may wrinkle slightly, adding an element of self-loathing to the fear on his face. Through softening, people often communicate to others that they are able to cope with their feelings and make their own behavior conform to cultural norms or the current situation.

In the case of modulation, the person adjusts the intensity of the expression of the emotion, rather than commenting on it. “There are three ways to modulate facial expressions,” writes Paul Ekman. "You can change the number of facial areas involved, the duration of expression retention, or the amplitude of facial muscle contraction." Typically, all three methods are used. But with falsification, the mimic process becomes false: not the emotion that the person is actually experiencing (simulation) is shown on the face, nothing is shown when there is actually a feeling (neutralization), or one expression is hidden behind another (disguise) ...

The Physiology of Lies: Place, Time, and Micro Expressions

To learn to recognize lies on faces, you need to pay attention to five aspects

Facial morphology (specific configuration of features);
- the temporal characteristics of the emotion (how quickly it arises and how long it lasts);
- the place of expression of emotion on the face;
- micro expressions (they interrupt the main expression);
- social context (if fear is visible on an angry face, you need to think about whether there are objective reasons for this).

People who are in control of their facial expressions will pay the most attention to the lower part: mouth, nose, chin and cheeks. After all, it is through the mouth that we carry out sound communication, including wordless: screams, crying, laughter. But the eyelids and eyebrows often "show" the true feeling - however, eyebrows are also used for mimic falsification, which can affect the appearance of the upper eyelids. What and how exactly is “out of place” in the process of deception depends on what is being broadcast and what is being hidden. For example, the expression of joy does not require us to use the forehead at all - so if it covers another emotion, the latter must be sought in that area.

From Ekman's books, you can learn to recognize different fake facial expressions in different situations: see frightened eyebrows on a neutral face (which indicates genuine fear), detect the absence of tension in the lower eyelids on an angry face (which indicates that anger is fake), find information leaks about real anger under the mask of disgust, notice the pauses between the verbal message about the emotion and the appearance of its false version on the face (1.5 seconds) and pay attention to other important little things.

But the main skill that Ekman's books and trainings allow to develop is the recognition of microexpressions. These expressions of emotion usually do not last very long: from half to a quarter of a second. You can learn to find them using the same photos and an L-shaped mask - if the images quickly replace each other. The presence of micro-expressions, however, does not mean that the person is not simultaneously masking, weakening and neutralizing the experienced emotions. These short episodes of mimic activity are a symptom of deception or, in extreme cases, a sign that the person himself does not know what he is feeling, but their absence does not mean anything.

Today Paul Ekman and his research team provide emotion recognition trainings for customs, police and border officials, HR professionals, and others who often have to look for deception or prove facts. However, its developments are useful not only at the border: they can help journalists during interviews, teachers in the classroom, businessmen in negotiations and many other people. However, neither Dr. Lightman's techniques from the series, nor Dr. Ekman's techniques, which formed the basis of "Lie to Me," should not be used at home. After all, not every deception actually entails negative consequences, and close people should be given the right to secrecy, since not everything they hide has to do with us.

Pictures © Matthieu Bourel