Search This Blog

Showing posts with label Detecting honesty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detecting honesty. Show all posts

The Quickest Way to Spot a Lie

Patti shared her insights on the quickest way to spot a lie with the Today Show.  See her insights highlighted below and check out the entire article at the link below.


The Quickest Way to Spot a Lie

Sure, you may think you’re pretty good at reading people. But can you really catch a smooth liar in action?

It’s possible, and body language is the crucial clue: your body language, that is. It turns out that you may actually be able to detect deception by paying attention to your own body’s reactions.
“Typically we think about watching and observing the other person to catch them in a lie,” body language expert Patti Wood, the author of "Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language & Charisma," told TODAY. “Paying attention to your body can be incredibly useful.”
That’s because your subconscious picks up thousands of cues per minute, Wood said — far more than you could ever detect by watching someone for a particular tic. Typically, liars subtly demonstrate a number of stress cues that your body will pick up on, she explained.

As it takes in those subconscious cues, your body will start to respond: You may feel a little nauseous, get a headache or funny feeling in your stomach, start sweating or change the pace of your breathing. According to Wood, that’s because your body is actually alerting you that something is not quite right — that the person in front of you is stressed for some reason.

Body language and communication expert Dr. Lillian Glass agreed. “When someone lies, your own autonomic nervous system can pick it up,” she told TODAY. Your face might then react, for instance, you might automatically purse your lips, squint your eyes or cock your head to the side, Glass said.
“If you pay attention to your own reactions in terms of the nuances of your own body language, it can help validate that you have just heard a lie,” Glass said.

There are a few caveats, though. First of all, an experienced liar (such as a sociopath) may not give off as many stress cues, meaning your body may not react the same way. Furthermore, you could be creating that stressful situation yourself if you go into a situation trying to “catch” someone in a lie, Wood said — meaning you can’t trust your own body’s responses there, either. Instead, try to cultivate a demeanor that is credible, honest and trustworthy, so someone feels safe entrusting you with the truth, Wood advised.
And always remember exactly why you’re hoping to catch someone in a lie.

“We sometimes are looking for these cues so that we don’t have to have a difficult conversation with somebody,” Wood said. “Ask yourself, what is the result that I want?” Be honest with yourself about your motivations — because even if you do catch someone in a lie, you have to be prepared to handle the truth after that.


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

How Long Does It Take For You To Assess If Someone Is Trustworthy?


How Long Does It Take For You To Assess If Someone Is Trustworthy?

Trusting Faces:
How long does it take us to judge the trustworthiness of a person we just met? According to the research with brain scans apparently not long. In fact,  within 33 milliseconds , we have already decided if we initially trust a person just by judging their face

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Contest for "Best First Impression Story"

I am currently running a contest for the Best First Impression Story. Just email me a one or two paragraph story about a first impression you had about someone that illustrates credibility or the lack of credibility. Your story can be from your work experiences or your personal life. It doesn't need to be in fancy language, just a story from your great wealth of experience.

The prize for the best story is $100 dollars and a 30 minute phone coaching session with me.
The stories will be judged by three writers. Email your story to: Patti@pattiwood.net by Friday March 15, 2011. Or if it is easier, just give me a call and tell me the brief story over the phone. My cell number is 678-358-6160.

Story Example
As a circuit judge, I read first impressions in traffic court. One day in my traffic court I had some one ticketed for running a stop sign. I tend to asses someone immediately if the person appears 1. -Guilty, 2. - Guilty, but he or she won't tell a bold lie, they feel bad or 3. - Innocent. My gut tells me this guy is a 2 - Guilty but willing to learn a lesson. Sure enough, during testimony he said, "I don't FEEL I ran the stop sign." I interpreted the use of the word FEEL and his body language to mean he knew he might have run the stop sign. So I had him take a video camera and tape 10 to 15 cars going through that intersection with the stop sign then come back to court. He came back in after viewing the video and with his face and voice expressed a mixture of wonder at the facts and embarrassment at his mistake and said, " I watched those other cars run that stop sign, and I realized I had run it too." I feel it is my job not to merely punish people but ultimately to make them better citizens in the future. In his case, I was glad he learned something and admitted his guilt and I let him off with a warning.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Are Facebook Profiles Honest?

New research on Facebook profiles indicate that people reveal more of their true personalities than one might guess.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=honesty-online
When you scan someone’s profile, you probably expect a little fudging: an overly flattering photograph, a generously phrased blurb in the “about me” section. A study in the March issue of Psychological Science, however, suggests that Facebook users do not skew their profiles to reflect idealistic visions of themselves.

In the study, research assistants at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Mainz in Germany viewed the Facebook profile of a study participant, then guessed how he or she would score on the “big five” common personality measures used in psych?ological research: extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and conscientiousness. Next they compared the results based on Facebook with the actual personality test scores from the profile owner and the results from four of his or her “well-acquainted friends,” who also rated the person’s personality traits. The research assistants were successful on four of the five measures—all except neuroticism, which is notoriously to gauge in general.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional The Body Language Expert Web- http://www.PattiWood.netI have a new quiz on my YouTubestation. Check it out!YouTube- YouTube - bodylanguageexpert's Channel

Detecting Deception is More Than Lies

Those of you that follow my blog know that I have been researching nonverbal cues of deception and training people on deception detection for many years. You may not know that my programs are actually teach people to distinguish truth tellers from someone who is lying. I also teach people how to build their personal credibility. Why do I train people to detect honesty in a deception detection course? Because the research deception detection indicates that you can train people to detect deception but unless you also train them to detect the truth they will end up with a deception bias . That bias acts in conjunction with other errors in detecting deception such as suspecting people of lying when they are merely nervous or reading normally introverted people as liars to increase the simply introverted that increase false deception detection judgments. Though some research shows the a deception bias increases ones ability to detect deception I believe that a balanced approach creates a higher degree of accuracy