Have you ever had a feeling that someone was not quite telling you everything truthfully? I’m sure you’ve had that feeling, and it usually means that the person was lying to you in some way!

What’s actually happening when you get this feeling is that your subconscious has analysed the body language and tone of voice of the person with whom you are speaking, and it has identified traits within these that have previously been associated with someone who lied to you. My first suggestion is that if you get this feeling, trust your gut instinct. It’s usually right!

You can usually tell if somebody is sure they are telling the truth, as well. If they emphatically believe what they are telling you, the body language and tonality again become different. You’ve seen examples of that, too, so again, your subconscious communicates with you to let you know this is the case through the way you feel about the conversation.

However, maybe you can’t easily tell this way! There are certain things you can look for to identify somebody who’s lying to you. The first thing to look for is a change in the apparent level of confidence of your conversational companion. Have they started making shifty eyes at you, and avoiding eye contact? If they’ve been doing this all the time, then perhaps they are shy. If they’ve just started doing it, then they are very likely to be lying to you. It’s very difficult to mask this trait.

Have they started scratching under their collar? You literally get hot under the collar when you lie. This is because lying usually causes physiological changes, such as an increased heart rate. The increased blood pressure causes the blood to run closer to the skin. This will raise the temperature of the skin, which will sweat more. If somebody is wearing a collar, they will tend to itch there. Again, you need to assess the person. Do they normally scratch under their collar? If so, maybe the person does this out of habit born from a lack of confidence. Lack of confidence can produce the same effect.

Have they just hidden their palms? It’s difficult to lie with palms on display. If the hands have just been moved to a position where you cannot see the palms, perhaps by the arms becoming crossed, and it coincides with something new being said that seems like it might be dodgy, this is very likely to be a lie!