Ex Secret Service polygraph expert with over 25 years of experience reveals 5 dead giveaways someone is lying
Is there a way to tell if someone is lying? One ex-secret service agent believes so, and he has offered his insight on what signs to look out for.
While there are age-old theories on how to check if someone is being untruthful, such as laughing during a serious conversation or looking to their left, it turns out that there is actual science behind the behaviors of a liar.
Polygraph expert and former member of the secret service, Brad Beeler, sat down with LADbible Stories to explain how to spot a liar, revealing that there are five red flags to look out for.
Advert
Beeler has conducted more criminal polygraph examinations than any other secret service agent and he shared his ‘LIARS method’ which breaks down the five different indicators that someone is lying.
Five red flags someone is lying to you
- Latency - how long it takes them to respond
- Incongruence - their body language contradicts what they’re saying
- Avoidance - they skirt the question
- Resistance - they act offended you asked the question
- Shifting vocal inflection - their answers sound like questions
According to Beeler, the truth lies in body language, small shifts in vocal inflections and avoidance, highlighting that these are the real giveaways when someone is lying to you.
Speaking to Issac, Beeler explained: “The truth is like a movie reel. You can rewind it, you can fast forward it, and when you hit play, you should almost get an immediate response.
“The problem is on a manufactured story, people have a hard time rewinding and fast forwarding, thinking about what the smells were, what their feelings were because it’s a created situation.”
The expert went on to share that, contrary to popular belief, liars ‘actually have better eye contact than truthful people’.
Delving into the reason behind this, Beeler continued: “Because they know the importance of it. So they really kind of hone in. Yeah. And people are sometimes awkward. We’re always absorbed with our phones now. Sometimes people don’t like to have eye contact. So that one, we got to get rid of that one.
“Body language, other than the head nod and the disagreement there, other than that, body language is a terrible predictor of truth and fiction… Once again, a lot of liars are very suave when it comes to their body language. They’re very smooth when it comes to their body language. So don't look at that either. Body language is about reception of message, meaning you’re comfortable or you’re not comfortable. So we want to be careful about that.
“Where they look, do they look up to the left, down to the lower right, you hear that too? Nonsense. Okay. So those are some things I want you to walk away from. I want you to focus kind of where we talked about here today… let’s create an environment where it’s easier to tell the truth.”