True or false? self-directed behaviours that give away liars!

image by J. Coutinho

Lying is not easy......there are conflicting emotions involved - fear, guilt and shame - which need to be controlled or the lie will become apparent.  But the conflict also reveals that we value honesty and truth because they usually bring peace of mind and to contradict this creates anxiety.   Self-directed behaviours often emerge unconsciously when we tell a lie and in some cases they may be viewed as displacement behaviours because they reveal that the teller is in two minds about the lie he is telling.  Here are some possible examples:

1. The 'Self-Squeeze' - this is when a person holds or hug themselves tightly.  This may look as if they are giving themselves a group hug or may also involve clamping their hands between or underneath their legs.  The self-squeeze is a way of steadying the body or keeping the body locked into a pose so that it cannot interfere with lie in progress.  In this respect, the person may appear as if frozen into an ice statue pose or be like a rabbit hypnotised by headlights.

2. Eye contact avoidance indicates is a common when lying.  In this blog we have discussed displacement avoidance and lying may generate the same phenomenon. There is also some evidence that looking up and to the right is also a sign of lying because in this action the brain is seeking to access that part of itself that stores imaginative data, rather than real memories or facts.  Indeed, it is well know that the act of thinking and imagining is a private one and to do so on the spot in front of people involves an attempt at protecting one's personal space from others.

3. Touching nose - aka 'the Pinocchio Effect'-   is when the person finds it necessary to lay a finger aside their nose, making it appear they have a longer nose than normal, hence the term 'Pinocchio'.

4. Covering the face/mouth reveals an amateur liar at work because they are attempting to 'obfuscate by muffling', (the O.B.M. Effect).

5. Lipbiting, which may accompany a face pull or a grimace is a self-directed action that gives liars away.

It would be interesting to do some research into these behaviours and see whether the do qualify as displacement actions or not.