15 Ways to Tell Someone Is Lying

With help from popular television shows like Lie to Me and The Mentalist, people have become fascinated with the idea of reading people, that is, spotting lies using facial expressions, voice inflection, and other such “tells.”

While it may seem like a trick, science has proven it is actually possible to identify certain signs of deception. Granted, it is not as easy as it sounds; often times, the indications of a lie are incredibly minute and subtle, which is why they are referred to sometimes as “micro-expressions.” Decoding and understanding the human face is still a relatively new topic of scientific research, and years of study are required to “translate” these micro-expressions, but there are a few things you can look for to help you discover deceptions. Training yourself takes a great deal of time and patience, but having such a skill could be incredibly beneficial.

One such example of these slight tells is a crack in the liar’s facial expression, which occurs over the span of just one-fifth of a second — maybe even as quick as one-25th! This kind of detective work is possible due to the existence of universal expressions. No matter where in the world one travels, no matter the differences in culture, there are certain facial formations shared by every human being, such as expressions of sadness. As such, there are specific muscles in the face that cannot be controlled when one feels genuine emotion, and so the absence of these muscles’ movement, and thus any real emotion, reveals the lie.