Is your husband working late EVERY night? Busy 24/7**365 ?? - It's a --- LIE

 Lies: The Complex Psychology Behind Deception and How to Detect It

Lies are a part of human communication and are an essential aspect of social interaction, yet they can have serious consequences when used to deceive or manipulate others. From white lies to more elaborate falsehoods, lies can take many forms and have different motivations.

At its core, lying is a defense mechanism that individuals use to protect themselves from distressing or unacceptable truths. According to the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, lying is a manifestation of defense mechanisms such as

😉repression ["Suppression" refers to the act of intentionally forgetting something, while "repression" refers to the unconscious act of forgetting something. ] or

👎denial [Denial is when someone believes that their understanding of what's happening is correct, even if it's not true. They think that their own sense of what's real is the ONLY truth. ]

that individuals employ to shield themselves from uncomfortable realities. Lying can serve as a means of maintaining a certain self-image or avoiding confrontation with uncomfortable truths.

However, lying is not always a conscious act. Confabulation is a phenomenon where an individual unintentionally fabricates false information without awareness. This can arise as a way for the individual to fill in memory gaps or create a coherent narrative, often based on fragments of truth mixed with imagination. From a psychoanalytic perspective, confabulation could be seen as a defense mechanism to protect the individual from distressing gaps in memory or a fragmented sense of self.

So, NOW, how can we detect deception? Dr. Paul Ekman's research on lying has identified several indicators of deception, such as

👅 inconsistencies in facial expressions,

💢Inconsistencies in speech patterns and

👻Inconsistencies in gestures.

His work has focused on understanding the facial expressions, body language, & verbal cues associated with deception. Dr. Ekman has identified MICRO-EXPRESSIONS,

👉which are fleeting facial expressions that reveal a person's true emotions quickly, even when they are trying to conceal them.

He has also explored the use of

💫💨Layered Voice Analysis (LVA), a technology that analyzes characteristics of speech such as

👉 voice pitch,

👉 intonation, voice modulations & timing to assess credibility and detect deception.

Moreover, Dr. Vrij developed Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA), a method for analyzing verbal statements to detect deception based on specific criteria related to the statement's content. This approach has been used in investigative interviewing and lie detection.

Dr. Hartwig has studied verbal cues that may signal deception, such as

👉 linguistic strategies,

👉 speech patterns, and

👉 content analysis of statements to identify inconsistencies or omissions that could indicate lying. 

 TIPS : 

1. Pay attention to actions and whether they agree with words.

2. Be aware that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up. 

3. Recognize that the power to lead is the power to mislead, and the power to mislead is the power to destroy.

4. Remember that what we feel is a choice, which may not necessarily be the truth. 

5. Resist the urge to fill in missing information when listening to a person’s story. Pay attention to exactly what is said and not said.

6. Look out for insincere, non-Duchenne smiles, which are still considered one of the most common indicators of deception. 

7. Remember that the devil will tell you nine truths out of ten, so that you’ll believe that one lie. 

8. Be aware that the polygraph test is not a lie detector. It only detects emotional arousal. 

9. Remember that the longer the other person talks, the more chance they have of slipping up. 

10. Use open-ended questions to get people to surrender information voluntarily and observe. 

11. Observe the liar's body language, as they will display less emotions while speaking than they or an average person normally would in their situation. These emotions will instead leak through in their body language. Most commonly, this manifests in more frequent blinking, pupil dilation, speech disturbances, and tongue slips.

12. Shaky or Averting Eyes: It is often believed that liars may have shifty or evasive eye movements. They may avoid direct eye contact or exhibit a lack of eye contact altogether

Direction of Eye Movements: There is a theory called neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) that suggests a connection between eye movements and whether a person is accessing memories (looking to the left) or creating something new (looking to the right) when they speak. However eye movements ALONE may not be a reliable indicator of deception.


In Conclusion, Lying is complex and has profound implications. Understanding the psychology behind it can detect deception and build honest relationships.