In real life, being deceived is an everyday hazard and we need to be on the look-out for it. Certain kinds of body language occur more often when people are lying than when they are telling the truth. For example, what is called leakage refers to non-verbal behaviour which an individual fails to control, such as shuffling the feet, twitching the toes, crossing and uncrossing the legs. Facial expressions may be capable of control, and an accomplished liar may be able to maintain eye contact with his listener, but the movements of the hands are less easily controllable. One gesture commonly associated with deception is the hand shrug in which the hands are rotated so as to expose the palms. It is as if deceivers try to enlist our sympathy to cover the deception- what, me? Touching the side of the nose, touching the eye, licking the lips, drumming the fingers and gripping arm rests, occur more often when people are attempting to deceive others. Blushing, perspiration, voice tremors, gulping, shaking and playing with pencils or spectacles are other commonly observed behaviours. This suggests that stress has its own distinctive body language. As Sigmund Freud wrote: He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips. Betrayal oozes out of every pore. Liars are less likely to engage in bodily contact or even to approach closely. Their body language very often contradicts their spoken words. For instance, they may say they would be very willing to submit themselves to a full enquiry and yet their facial expression, posture and gestures will suggest otherwise. When Albert Mehrabian investigated how people behaved when they were conveying truthful messages as against those that were not, he discovered that those who were lying talked less, talked more slowly, and made more errors of speech. Additionally, their rate of body movement also seemed to be slower. What this tells us is that body language can be just as good a guide to the truth as the most eloquently spoken words.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 06:26:24 +0000
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