by Indrani Basu

Created on: September 07, 2009

You have to be a real mind reader to know whether anyone is lying or telling the truth. Without this divine quality it is really difficult to guarantee the authenticity of any statement. Of course there are ways to judge whether a person is telling a lie or the truth. Here are some signs that could help you to take that judgement.

1. Over emphasis and repeating, okay so you know the reason now, that due to heavy traffic one could not make it on time. But sometimes you think why is this person pulling a story so long? Is there any further need to pick and describe each detail? If not, you could see the reason as being an excuse or a lie altogether.

2. Missing thoughts, broken words, people lie when they are short of facts or they want to hide facts and at those times they need their imagination to work for them, to build a story for them which would seem better and more convincing than the truth itself. And if the time is short or someone is not so good at baking stories, then the words or sentences that come out from the person and quite vague and with lots of illogical stances. You may have experienced this with some not-so-good movies. After watching a movie you find that lots of links were missing. After all it is all a minds creation of a series of lies.

3. Beware of over stare, when someone tells the truth, there is a kind of conviction in the person's eyes. But if you feel uncomfortable or you find the person rather starting at you to prove his point, you may take it as a lie or an incomplete truth.

4. Some people and harmless habitual liars and you can pick them by the kind of company they keep and what their friends have to say about them.

5. Too many gestures and very less eye contact, this happens mostly with the younger lot. They will look everywhere else apart from you and raise their hands or tap their feet continuously. This is a sign of an almost sure lie.

6. Stories falling flat, sometimes people do not remember what they had cooked up last time and so when they have to repeat an incident or a lie they create a new story. To be a perfect liar you need to have a very sharp memory.

The best part is, it is not always the best policy to say the truth, and lies can be good too. It all depends on how you are going to use it.

Learn more about this author, Indrani Basu.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.