Most people have been on the receiving end of someone’s little white lie, but lying can be a habit for some individuals and if you are not aware of it, you can be victimized by troublesome liars. Knowing if someone is lying to you is not always easy. Some people can be very good at convincing people they are telling the truth.
Whatever a person’s reasons for lying to you are, it will surely affect you and your life. That’s why it is helpful to know when someone isn’t telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
Helpful Strategies to Tell If Someone is Lying
If you’re not good at detecting lies and you need to know if a person is telling you the truth or not, here are a few ways to help you.
Listen For the Anomalies In Their Response
The liar’s responses to expected questions can be vague and quick. For example, they may know they will be questioned so they have already got their response ready. They may also leave out some parts of their story if it doesn’t fit in with their lies. Whereas, if a person is telling you the truth, they may pause when questioned, and their responses will be effortless for both anticipated and unexpected questions. A pause is a good sign! It shows sincerity and truth.
Ask Them Challenging Questions
Liars are good at telling their stories in a specific order, that’s why it’s hard to detect a lie. You can often call them out if you throw them random questions out of order. It’s hard for a liar to remember all the facts they have given you, so ask them for more details in reverse order. If they are lying to you they will struggle because they need to make up impromptu facts. You can observe more of their verbal and non-verbal cues that differ from truth-telling.
Also, are they repeating your questions back to you? That’s a tell-tale sign that they are probably lying to you. They are stalling for time if they are doing this as they are trying to think of an answer. Repeating a part of your questions is natural, but restating them word for word is not.
Beware If They Deny and Disengage
Liars will vehemently deny your accusation and disengage from the confrontation. They will divert your attention away from what they are lying about to remove themselves as your target of suspicion. Honest people don’t walk away but are eager to uncover the truth when someone accuses them of anything.
In Summary
It’s good to learn to spot subtle behaviors and don’t forget to trust your own gut feelings or instinct. Aside from the many ways you can tell when someone is lying to you, be careful in giving your trust to people you perhaps shouldn’t be trusting.
Practice conditional trust to protect yourself from liars. Don’t put your complete trust in a person if they have deceived you before. In the end, the ugly truth is what you will face behind a beautiful lie.
