Statements of Deception

Spy the Lie: Three Former CIA Officers Reveal Their Secrets to Uncloaking Deception by Philip Houston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When someone is lying to you it is rather difficult to spot the deception. Humans are not natural lie detectors. Unless you know the truth for certain will never be able to know if someone is lying. Some things that make it difficult are that we assume people tell the truth. Our biases also help blind us. In addition we try to absorb information but that still does not help.

The model for detecting deception is simple. The first point is ignore truthful statements that do not deal with the issue. Most people tell lies within five seconds of hearing unpleasant stimulus. Look for clusters of behavior when determining deception. Communication consists of verbal and nonverbal behaviors. If there are three indicators of deceptive behavior chances are the person is being deceptive. People will often mask their crime by telling the truth about something unrelated.

What does deceptive behavior look like? When we take an oath in court we agree to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There are three kinds of lies, the first kind of lie is a lie of commission where we tell a bald face lie. The second lie is a lie of omission where we leave out part of the truth. The third is a lie of influence , wherein the deceived tries to make themselves appear truthful. Here are some tactics people will use when being deceptive. Such behaviors include failure to answer, lack of clear denial,refusal to answer, repeating questions, non answer statements, inconsistent statements, overly specific answers, extreme politeness, high concern and procedural complaints among others.

When a liar does not have the facts on their side they will resort to making what is called convincing statements. For example let us say that you accuse someone of stealing something. They will not respond by denying the theft rather they will say “ I would never do that I am an honest person.” They lack sticking to the facts.
Another tactic liars use when the facts are not on their side is going on the attack mode. They will act all indignant and verbally attack the person who is asking the questions.

As noted earlier communication consists of verbal and nonverbal cues. When a deceptive person is lying you can often discern their untruthfulness by their physical reactions. Some physical reactions might be a behavioral pause or delay when asked a direct question if they did something or not. There may be a verbal/nonverbal. Which means that they might say yes if they shake their head back-and-forth right to left that would be a disconnect. Another behavior to look at his hiding their mouth or their eyes. As people live they tend to get more nervous nervous behaviors can include throat clearing or swallowing before answering a tough question. Another behavior might be increased and to face activity. Moving th anchor points is a significant teller of whether one was speaking truth or lie, also increased grooming gestures.

Other tactics to fish out liars include presumptive questions where In the questioner makes an assumption and puts it in question form. Hopefully the liar takes the bait. The second question is a baiting question that causes nervous tension in the liar. For example if you were accused of robbing s certain house and the questioner asked would there be any reason a neighbor saw you near the house?

The book was written by three former CIA trainers . There are case examples to test your skills and see the concepts in application.

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