© 2017 Vanessa Van Edwards. All rights reserved.

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The Lying Game

Before we get started let’s test your skills. Which story do you think is real and which is fake? Put
your answer below, we will re-watch these videos at the end of the course!

Which story is real? Story A or Story B?

______________________

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Introduction
Have you ever thought someone was telling you a lie? Your intuition was probably right—on
average people tell two to three lies in a ten-minute conversation.

Even more frightening, 91% of people lie regularly at home and work. But we can detect these lies
only about half of the time—no better than a coin toss.

Learning how to decode and interpret nonverbal behavior such as facial expressions, gestures,
physical movements and vocal tone is an integral part of communication. The majority of our
interpersonal communication is nonverbal, yet we often base all of our interactions on verbal content
alone.

By using the latest scientific techniques summarized in this course, you will no longer doubt yourself
or wonder helplessly if the person you are with is trying to deceive you.

Before we get too much further let’s put your lie spotting skills to the test. You can also take this
quiz again at the end of our session and watch your score soar!

ScienceofPeople.com/lies

Research has shown you can significantly improve your lie spotting and people reading ability
by learning how to read nonverbal behavior.

All of the tips, cues and clues in this course are based on academic research. For a full list of my
sources, you can see my citation section.

Have Questions?

 Private Facebook Group: Go to our Lie Detection in 100 Minutes Facebook Groupto meet
fellow students, ask us questions and see lots of pop culture examples of lying.
 Cool Links: Spot a lie on the news? See some awesome body language on TV? Tweet me
@Vvanedwards.
 More Practice: Of course we post tons of practice videos and articles on our YouTube
channel—subscribe for free!

Who Is This Course For?

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Whether you are a teacher, businessman, police officer, husband, gardener or mother, this course is
for you. If you have ever interacted with another person, this course can change the way you
communicate with others.

Interesting Fact: Extroverts lie more than introverts.

Everyone should know more than 82% of lies go undetected.

Businesses should know corporate fraud cost us $997 billion in the United States in 2011, which is
7% of total annual revenue.

Parents should know college students lie to their moms one in every five interactions.

Human resource professionals and entrepreneurs should know a third of all resumes contain false
information.

Managers should know one in five employees say they are aware of fraud in their workplace.

Women should know men typically lie more often than females.

Goals of the Course

By the end of the course I want you to achieve 5 things:

1. Hit the 90%: Improve your lie spotting ability to up to 90% accuracy by using the right
science based techniques and practice.
2. Unlock the Secrets of Body Language:Learn the latest body language research and apply it
to your life.
3. Spot Hidden Emotions: Learn how to spot microexpressions, emblems, nonverbal cues and
tells. See the world in High Definition.
4. Be a Truth Hunter: The entire purpose of this course is to give you more honest and
fulfilling interactions.
5. Discover Your Untapped Superpower! Discovering the secrets of body language and
learning to read microexpressions completely changed my life. Now it’s time to change
yours.

The Good News

Lie spotting is about getting back to truth. This course is not about teaching you to pick people’s
behavior apart or point fingers at liars. It is about arming you with scientific principles to help you
have more honest interactions, better communication and more trustworthy relationships.

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 Interesting Fact: Researchers found that combining deception detecting
techniques with background checks can reveal 32% more cases of past job
dismissals, 60% more criminal convictions and 82% more cases of alcohol
abuse during work hours.

Our brain is much more adept at spotting lies than we realize. When our brain picks up on a lie
subconsciously we often have what we call, an intuition, that something is wrong, but we are not
sure what. The tools in this course will help you bring that subconscious realization forward so you
know exactly what you are seeing.

Some people, nicknamed truth wizards, are able to naturally spot detection with incredible accuracy.
Research from University of California found that 20 to 30% of these truth wizards had traumatic
childhoods involving alcohol, an unstable home life, sexual, or emotional or physical abuse.

Researchers in this study hypothesized that it was very important for these children to be able to read
the adults around them in the unstable situations because their safety, and sometimes their life,
depended on it.

Our brains develop the ability to spot lies and hidden emotions as a way of self-protection. So, we
are working with tools that our brain already knows, we just have to bring them forward.

Do You Really Want to Know?

When I tell people I am a behavioral investigator and write about human behavior—with an
emphasis on human lie detection, there is a question I always get:

Is human lie detection a blessing or a curse?

It is a blessing to know when people are lying to you, but can feel like a curse when someone you
thought you could trust turns out to be dishonest. In the end, I would always rather know the hard
truth than be ignorantly blissful. This might not be the case for everyone.

Before diving into this course, you have to ask yourself: Are you prepared to see the hidden
emotions in the people around you?

You might not always like the emotions or lies you see.

Interesting Fact: Since 1991, lifetime infidelity among men over aged 60 has
doubled. Among women it has tripled.

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A Word of Caution
The purpose of this course is not to turn you into a suspicious person. Quite the opposite, in fact! By
arming yourself with the right tools, you can feel more confident to relax around people and trust
that you know lies when you see them instead of being suspicious of everyone and every action
happening around you.

In fact, being overly suspicious will not serve you well. Research shows that people who score
higher on measures of trust also spot lies better. That means it is better to be trusting and open-
minded because suspicious people don’t catch liars and falsely accuse more often.

What to Expect
Learning to decode human behavior will completely change the way you interact and listen to others.
If you choose to use the principles in this course you will start to notice nuances to communication
and aspects of people you did not see before.

True emotions that you had missed will now seem painfully obvious. It will be like watching people
around you in High Definition. Facial expressions you never noticed will become clear, body
language red flags will jump to your attention and voice tone discrepancies will sound like sirens in
your head.

You have to be ready for these changes. And be ready to be surprised. If you decide to dive deep into
the world of body language sleuthing, people hacking and lie spotting then this course is your step-
by-step guide.

The tips in this course are based on the latest scientifically backed research on deception detection
and nonverbal behavior.

Interesting Fact: Adults lie in about one in five social interactions. College
students lie in one in three social interactions.

About Me
I have always been fascinated by people and what drives their behavior. As a behavioral investigator
and author, I am a research junkie. I love curating the latest scientific findings and translating them
into bite-sized science that can be used in every day life.

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In my columns for Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and the Huffington Post, I often apply
groundbreaking studies to modern day business and social trends.

My website, ScienceofPeople.com has an in depth selection of free articles, videos and tutorials for
my readers and fellow body language detectives.

About Us
We have a very unique approach at the Science of People. You will learn that we have a very
different way of teaching human behavior. Here is how we work:

1. Science Based: We take a science-based approach to body language and everything we are
teaching you has come from academic institutions or research organizations.

2. Applicable: Science is not always useful in every day life. We take the science and make
sure it works for you.

3. Anti-Boring: This science is fascinating! We hope to inform you and inspire you in an
entertaining way. Hopefully we can get you as addicted to this work as we are!

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How Lying Works
To understand the method of lie detection we have to look at how lying works in the brain and the
body.

The Lying Brain:

The anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are the areas of the brain that are
most active during deception. In fact, compared to telling the truth, there are 14 more active brain
regions during deception.

When we lie, our brains become overloaded with information. The 14 active regions are trying to do
lots of things at the same time. A liar has to:

-Know the truth

-Make up a false story

-Convince you of the false story and change the story or details based on your reactions

-Keep the false facts straight in their head

-Try to think how an honest person would say it and then try to portray that emotion

-Try to control their face during the lie

-Try to control their body during the lie

-Try to adjust their voice tone and pitch to be what an honest person sounds like

These are a lot of different things to keep straight and this is why liars forget to control their body—
they don’t have enough brain power! When this happens the brain can only focus on a few things at
a time. Some truth can slip through the cracks. We often leak our deception in three ways:

1. Facial Expressions
2. Body Language
3. Vocal Cues

Lie detection is all about looking for the slips.

Interesting Fact: People lie more in dimly lit rooms.

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The Lying Body:
Researcher Kang Lee created a process called Transdermal Optical Imaging. This showed that when
someone lies, their facial blood flow changes. Their cheeks tend to get less blood flow and their nose
gets more blood flow. This helps us as lie spotters because we know what to look for. Nose
scratching is a typical lying cue because lying increases blood flow to the nose.

Researchers Alan Hirsch and Charles Wolf found that Bill Clinton touched his nose only 2 times
during his truthful testimony in the Monica Lewinsky trial and 26 times during his deceitful
testimony. Why? Lying caused more blood flow in his nose, which made it itch.

Bottom Line: The secret to lie detection is about looking for slips when the brain is overloaded and
leaks when the body gives our guilt away. In this course I will teach you five steps to discover these
slips and leaks.

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Lie to Me
It’s time to film your own Lie to Me video which we will use later in the course to diagnose your
own tells. You MUST do this before taking the course so you do not skew your results—as soon as
you know typical lying tells, it becomes easier to cover them up.

Directions:
When you have about 15 minutes to put aside, please sit in front of your video recorder (phone,
webcam) so I can see your upper body and face as you speak. Be sure it is a quiet and well-lit area so
we can see and hear you. When you are ready turn on the recorder.

STOP READING!!!!

Do not read the questions ahead of time.

Read them as you are recording so you do not have time

to overthink your answers.

Once your camera is ready, move to the next page…

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Once your recorder is on, you may begin to answer the following questions. Please
read the question first and then look into the web cam as you deliver your answer.

1) What is your name?(Truth please!)

2) How old are you?(Truth please!)

3) Where are you from?(Truth please!)

4) Tell me what you ate for breakfast.(Truth please!)

5) Tell me the story of your most embarrassing moment? (Truth please!)

(Please be specific and use details)

6) Tell me about one of your greatest fears. Why does it scare you?(Truth please!)

7) Please take a few seconds to make up an embarrassing moment. (Lie please—

and no half-truths, please make up a complete lie)

Be sure to come up with details and specifics like your real embarrassing moment.

(Don’t take written notes that will give it away).

Once you have thought of a story, feel free to practice it in your head if you need to
deliver your answer as convincingly as possible.

When you are ready, deliver it to the camera the same way you did with the honest
one. Try to make it as convincing as possible so when I play the two next to each
other it is hard to believe which is real.

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8) Please take a few seconds to make up your greatest fear—it should be
something you actually enjoy but try to convince me it is in fact one of your
greatest fears. (Lie please—and no half-truths, please make up a complete lie)

When you are ready, deliver it to the camera the same way you did with the honest
one in as convincing a way as possible.

9) Please come up with 2 truths about yourself and one lie.

(Don’t write them down). When you are ready, deliver them in any order you want:

10) Please say out loud which one was the lie.

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Step#1: Baselining
The first and most important step to human lie detection is baselining.

A baseline is how someone acts when they are under normal, non-threatening
conditions. It is how someone looks when they are telling the truth.

We want to know what someone looks like when they are telling the truth so we can see how it
differs from their lying look later.

Interesting Fact: About 20% of men and 15% of women under the age of 35
have cheated on their partner. It is even higher for people aged 18 to 25, with
30% of partners having cheated.

When you want to better read a person’s emotions or spot when they lie, you will need to find their
baseline, or notice how they look, sound, act and behave when they are telling the truth. For this
course we will call the person you are trying to read “the subject.”

The Human Polygraph:

Do you know about polygraphs? When you take a polygraph the machine reads your resting heart
rate, perspiration and nervousness then looks for spikes or differences when someone is lying. We
are doing the exact same thing but with external changes.

Getting a baseline is about seeing how your subject looks, sounds, stands, sits and moves when they
are relaxed and telling the truth. This will help us spot differences later.

How to Baseline:
As you are observing someone, it is helpful to take notes. Don’t worry, as you get good at human lie
detection you will be able to baseline and do all the steps of lie detection in your head. But for now,
it’s good to take notes. We have created a simple system to do this called a Baseline Chart. Anytime
you want to baseline someone, just draw three columns on a sheet of paper.

The first column is for everything you observe while baselining someone.

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 Baseline: Nervous Baseline: Red Flags:

This first column is where you can take notes on someone’s baseline—the more details the better.
Posture, blinking, sweating, scoffs, volume, voice tone, hair flips—whatever you notice in their
behavior or mannerisms goes here.You can use this chart or a blank sheet of paper to practice.
Specifically pay attention to:

 Their facial expressions—are they very expressive? What faces do they make? Where do
they look when they are talking to you?
 Their body language—what is their posture like? Do they use hand gestures? Do they
fidget? How do they behave?
 Their vocal power—how do they sound? Do they sigh or scoff? Do they speak fast or slow?
What is their volume like?

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All of these will be helpful to you when moving on to later steps.

Baselining Questions
In order to see how your subject behaves when being honest you want to discuss neutral topics. This
is typically very easy when you have just met someone at a party, meeting or job interview.

Start with a few non-threatening questions your subject would have no reason to lie about, like the
weather, their name or their plans for the weekend. Anything that qualifies as small talk is usually
safe. Here are some of my favorites:

Fact Based Questions:

These are questions that are easily verifiable. People usually do not lie about things that are found on
their LinkedIn page or with a basic Google search. Luckily, these often come up naturally in early
conversations. Here are my favorites:

1. What’s your name?

2. Where did you grow up?
3. Where did you go to school?
4. What did you study?
5. Where do you work?
6. What’s your role?
7. How long have you been at your company?
8. How old are you? (careful, this one can produce lies)
9. How tall are you?
10. How long have you been married?
11. How many kids do you have?
12. Did we win the game yesterday?
13. Is it raining?
14. Was it easy to find parking?
15. Been to this place before?

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Conversational Questions:

These questions are more conversational and while they are not fact-finding they typically produce
honest answers because they are topics people rarely have reason to lie about.

1. How’s your day been?

2. Have any trouble getting here?
3. What did you think of the game last night?
4. What did you do last weekend?
5. Working on anything exciting recently?
6. Planning any vacations?
7. Been on any vacations recently?
8. What’s for lunch?
9. Any new clients these days?
10. How did you meet your spouse?

Generally, I like to do three baselining questions in total—maybe two fact-finding questions and one
conversational one.

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Step #2: Nervous Baselining

One of the biggest mistakes lie spotters face is separating lies from nerves. If a subject is on a job
interview you might assume they are probably nervous, even when they are answering neutral
questions. If you ask someone a tough or sensitive question, they might be nervous because the
subject is difficult for them to discuss -- even if they are telling the truth.

If you are trying to decode a subject when discussing difficult topics or in a tense situation, you need
to be sure to get their ‘nervous baseline.’ This is how the subject looks when they are nervous, but
still telling the truth.

Anervous baseline is how someone acts when they are nervous or talking about a
tense, passionate or emotional topic.

It is how someone looks when they are emotional or nervous. Before you can spot any lies you must
take someone’s emotional temperature to see how they look when they discuss a hard topic. To do
this, you ask slightly more challenging questions and see how people’s behavior changes. This is
getting into the advanced stuff. I have a few go-to questions I use:

1. Working on any big projects recently?

2. Did you see the news? Can you believe what happened with that [sad news event]?
3. Have you been experiencing any of the [high stress industry challenge]?
4. Any big challenges you are facing right now?
5. Did you hear about [stressful social or work news]?

Most often you can get anervous baseline organically when a stressful topic comes up. This happens
all the time. Someone got stuck in traffic? That could give you one. Someone is frustrated about
being sick? That could give you one. Someone is worried about their kids? That is certainly one.
Here are topics that frequently give you anervous baseline:

 The Economy
 Parenting
 Religion
 Traffic
 Getting Lost
 Politics
 Difficult Parking
 Bad Food
 Getting Sick

When you are getting someone’s nervous baseline you are looking for their nervous tells.

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Nervous tells are things that people do when they are anxious. They are leaks of
nervousness.
You should be looking for any change at all in the baseline. You mark this in the second column of
your Baseline Chart. For examplelets say you are baselining your subject and during all three
questions you take some notes. (See column #1 below)

During baselining she never touches her face or body. But all of a sudden, when you bring up
distressing news about the stock market she touches her earring. Then when discussing possible
consequences she rests her chin on her hand. Her nervous tell might be a head touch—whether that
is an earring or chin or eye touch.

You would then add this and any other nervous tell to the second column of your Baseline Chart.
This is how anervous baseline works. You watch to see how behavior changes during tense topics.
Lets practice.

Baseline: Nervous baseline: Red Flags:

 Slow talker  Earring touch

 Small smiles  Chin on hands
 Nods yes
 Quiet volume = Head Touch
 Arm cross
 Crossed legs
 Shoulder Shrugs
 Coughs

Let’s practice with the video:

Baseline: Nervous baseline: Red Flags:

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The Importance of Rapport
Baselining not only helps you read your subject, but it also lets your subject know you are paying
attention to them. This is a great rapport builder.

When you are paying close attention to someone, they feel you are more invested and interested in
them—which you are! This breeds loyalty and strong relationships.

The importance of building rapport cannot be understated. People tend to tell more lies in situations
where they feel uncomfortable or disconnected.

If they have a connection to you and think you are trustworthy they will want to help you.

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Step #3: Red Flags
Step #3 has to do with the third column on your Baseline Chart—and ideally, you never even get to
it. Hopefully, you have been chatting and bonding with the subject and feel you have a pretty good
read on them. Their first two columns are filled out. In the best interactions you keep talking and
never see any guilt, fear or red flags.

Alas, sometimes you will spot red flags. Step #3 is looking for statistical cues to deceit. These are
the nonverbal signs most often committed by liars.

A red flag is any behavior change from the baseline or nervous baseline.

Any deviation in body language, facial expressions or vocal power indicates something to
investigate further. Looking for these red flags is exactly what happens in a polygraph. The
polygraph is looking for changes or sudden differences in behavior. You are the polygraph now. You
are looking for any changes in facial expressions, hand gestures, voice ticks, scoffs, sighs, volume or
posture. And remember that red flags can be in the body, face or voice.

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Secrets of Nonverbal
Learning about red flags also teaches us a lot about the universality of body language. For red flags
we are looking for congruency.

Congruency is when someone’s words align with their body language.

In other words, if someone is happy, they should look happy. If someone is sad, they should look
sad. If someone says they are angry, they should also look angry. Lie detection is about spotting
incongruencies—when someone say one thing, but show another.

Let’s look at some of the most common red flags:

 The Lip Purse is when someone presses their lips together into a hard line or pucker. This is
like someone is trying to keep their mouth shut and usually it is a sign of withholding. If you
see someone lip purse they might be holding back from telling you something or trying to
keep in the truth.

 Blocking happens when your subject wants to put a barrier between themselves and a lie or
potential punishment. They might do this by crossing their arms, crossing their legs, pulling
their knees to their chest or holding something in front of them. Common examples are when
a liar might:

o Cross their arms

o Hold something in front of them
o Pull their knees to their chest
o Clutch a purse or phone in front of them
o Cover their mouth
o Rub their eyes

 Eye Blocking is a specific type of blocking behavior.Eye blocking happens any time we
obscure our vision. We can do this by covering the eyes, pinching the eyes, rubbing the eyes,
playing with our glasses, pinching the bridge of our nose or even wiping makeup from our
eyes.

 Self-Soothing is something we do when we are nervous—it is a specific kind of self-touch.

We might rub the back of our neck, rub our arms, wring our hands, touch our jewelry, play
with our hair or touch our legs.

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 Mouth Moves happen as a kind of self-soothing gesture. This is when a subject tries to
comfort themselves by biting their nails, sucking on a pen or chewing on their fingers. A
subject might even hold their finger over their mouth as if to say ‘SHHH’ while listening.

 The Mouth Cover is another thing liars can do. Remember that our brain hates to lie—it’s a
lot of work and it often gets us into trouble. So sometimes liars subconsciously try to hold the
lie back by covering their mouth. They also might touch their mouth, bite their nails or bite
on a pen in a kind of self-soothing gesture.

 Nose Swellscan also cause a liar to touch, rub, sniff or itch their nose. It has to do with
Transdermal Optical Imaging—remember that? When someone lies they tend to get more
blood flow to the nose, which can make it itch.

 The One-Sided Shoulder Shrugis when someone just slightly lifts one shoulder up during
their lie—can be either shoulder but it seems to be a sign of guilt, as if your subject is just
slightly shrugging.

 The Incongruent Nodspecifically has to do with congruency. In most cultures, a vertical

nod means yes and a horizontal nod means no. So if someone says yes they should shake
their head yes and if someone says no they should shake their head no. It is a red flag if
someone says yes, but shakes no or vice versa.

 The Autonomic Nervous System can be activated when a liar is intensely nervous. This
shows up as sweating, blanching, blushing, deep swallows, yawns and hyperventilating.
Watch for any of these arousal signs.

 Ventilating happenswhen someone feels uncomfortable or nervous with a topic. Ventilating

is when people are trying to cool off from nerves. Women will also pull their hair off their
neck, men might fan themselves or pull out their shirt. This behavior is due to nerves causing
adrenaline release, which in turn makes blood pump faster, causing a subject to feel warm.

 The Shame Tapis a kind ofeye blocking. A specific eye block is called the Shame Tap.
When we are ashamed or embarrassed we often reach our hands up to touch our forehead and
shield our eyes.

 Eye Changes are another thing that can happen with liars. A subject’s blink rate might
change. It often increases for liars—it is a kind of eye blocking. At the very least watch for
sudden blink rate changes. If someone all of a sudden widens their eyes and stops blinking

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 that would be as much of a red flag as a sudden increase in blink rate. This might also show
up as gaze changes. If someone suddenly stops making eye contact or suddenly starts looking
up to the side this would be a red flag. When you are baselining your subject, pay attention to
where someone looks. Do they make eye contact with you? Do they look up towards the sky
or down towards the floor when they are trying to recall something? Any major changes from
this would constitute a red flag.

 Feet & Fist red flags are also great to pay attention to. Pay attention to someone’s hand and
feet behavior when you are baselining them. Are they tappers, knuckle crackers or leg
crossers? Researchers Nierenberg and Calero found that subjects who locked their ankles
during a negotiation were more likely to be holding back a valuable concession. So locked
angles, along with clenched fists are signs of discomfort or dislike. This is very important if it
differs from the baseline. For example, lets say you are chatting with someone and all of a
sudden they start tapping or shaking their foot. This is a red flag.

 The Suprasternal Notch is the point right at the hollow of the neck where the collarbones
meet. People touch this area when they feel distressed, threatened or insecure. Touching the
suprasternal notch is a self-soothing gesture. Women will touch the spot with their fingers or
rub a necklace that falls on that area. Men will often adjust their tie (which lies right above
the suprasternal notch). You might even see someone who is nervous just hold their hand
here as they listen. This is because it is comforting.

 The Turtle: Sometimes people will inch their shoulders up towards their ears and clasp their
hands to their sides. This happens when people lose confidence or are embarrassed. They are
literally trying to retreat into their imaginary shell, just like a turtle, to make themselves look
smaller. Dogs do this when they are punished. Kids sitting outside the principal’s office are
almost always in the turtle position.

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 Interesting Fact: If you watch security camera videos of shoplifters right
before they steal, they often try to make their body as compact as possible so as
not to be noticed.

 Duping Delight is a less common red flag, but one I want you to be aware of. Most liars feel
guilt and stress but some rare people love to lie, in fact they find it thrilling. With those
special cases you want to watch out for duping delight. This is a phenomenon where
someone smiles ever so slightly after delivering a lie—as if to say, gotcha! So if you see
someone mischievously smiling after saying something it might be a red flag to watch out
for.

 Distancing is similar to blocking in that liars often want to get away or put distance between
themselves and the lie. When a subject angles away, pulls away, steps back or turns away,
this is often in order to get away from the lie or the punishment of their lie.

The next red flags come out in the face and voice. Read on for those…

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Microexpressions
Most of us look at our conversation partner’s face far more than any other part of the body. The face
is a veritable map of human emotions—if you know how to read it.

Human emotions are shown primarily in the face, whereas the body merely shows how one is coping
with the emotion. Because of this, the face is the best place to look for lies and hidden emotions.

Our brains also pay a lot of attention to the face and make incredibly quick—and accurate snap
judgments just by looking at someone’s face. In one study, researchers had participants look at
pictures of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) while their brain activity was being monitored.

Certain faces caused people’s amygdala to light up—the area of the brain where fear is processed.
When asked about these faces, participants said they were most likely better leaders.
Subconsciously, we believe the people who cause us to feel afraid are likely more powerful and
would therefore make better leaders!

The most interesting part of the experiment—the ones who caused the most fear and participants
thought were the best leaders also made the most profits. Their brain was right!

Participants were able to accurately predict leadership abilities and profits just by looking at
someone’s face.

Unlike our words, our facial expressions are very hard to control because they are based on
emotions. They can be controlled if we consciously think about them, but are almost impossible to
control all the time, especially when we feel an intense emotion come on quickly.

A microexpression is a very brief, involuntary facial expression displayed on the face

of humans according to the emotions being experienced.

They often occur as fast as 1/15 to 1/25 of a second. Prolonged facial expressions can be a bit easier
to fake, but it is exceedingly difficult to fake a microexpression.

Dr. Paul Ekman, whom you could say is the father of the field of microexpressions, discovered over
10,000 facial expressions. Critically he has confirmed seven universal expressions with specific
meanings no matter the subject’s age, sex or culture.

These universal expressions are: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and contempt. Dr.
Ekman realized everyone from remote tribes in Papa New Guinea to Japanese businessmen to
American teenagers make these seven same facial expressions while experiencing corresponding
emotions.

He also found congenitally blind individuals—those blind since birth--also make the same
expressions even though they have never seen other people’s faces.

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Learning to read the seven microexpressions is incredibly helpful in understanding the people in our
lives and their thoughts.

Below, I describe each of the seven emotions. I highly encourage you to practice the expressions in
the mirror so you can experience for yourself how they look, and more importantly, how they feel.

You will find that if you make one of the universal facial expressions, you begin to feel that same
emotion yourself! Emotions not only cause facial expressions, facial expressions also can cause
emotions. This can be very helpful when trying to figure out the meaning of someone’s facial
expression.

When I speak with someone and they make a non-universal expression, I will try to mimic it and see
what emotions surface within me. This is a very simple way of literally feeling as your subject feels.

Here is a detailed description of the seven universal facial expressions and somewhat embarrassing
pictures of me making them. I hope they are helpful!

Anger:

Anger happens when someone feels rage or extreme irritation.

-The brows are lowered and drawn together

-Vertical lines appear between the brows

26
 -Lower lid is tensed

-Eyes hard stare or bulging

-Lips can be pressed firmly together with corners down or square shape as if shouting

-Nostrils may be dilated

-The lower jaw juts out

Fear:

Fear is shown when someone feels terror or apprehension. This is easy to see in
action if you have the subject watch a horror movie.

-Brows are raised and drawn together, usually in a flat line

-Wrinkles in the forehead are in the center between the brows, not across

-Upper eyelid is raised, but the lower lid is tense and drawn up

-Upper eye has white showing, but not the lower white

-Mouth is open and lips are slightly tensed or stretched and drawn back

27
Happiness:

Happiness is the easiest emotion to fake because a smile comes naturally to us. You
can still discern true happiness or joy when you see the muscles activated on the
outside corners of the eye (crows feet).

-Corners of the lips are drawn back and up in a smile

-Mouth may or may not be parted, teeth exposed

-A crease runs from outer nose to outer lip

-Cheeks are raised

-Lower lid may show wrinkles or be tense

-Crows feet near the outside of the eyes

28
Contempt or Hatred:

Contempt, disdain, scorn or hatred look very similar to a smirk, and is often used as
a pretense for being happy for someone to cover up jealousy.

-A simple one-side mouth raise

29
Disgust:

Disgust happens when someone feels repulsion or aversion.

-Upper lip is raised

-Nose is wrinkled

-Cheeks are raised

-Lines show below the lower lid

Surprise:

30
 Surprise is the briefest of emotions. It occurs when the subject is shocked about
something said or done.

-The brows are raised and curved—they should look like upside-down U’s

-Skin below the brow is stretched

-There can be horizontal wrinkles across the forehead

-Eyelids are opened, with the white of the eye showing above and below

-Jaw drops open and teeth are parted. The lips, jaw and mouth stay loose

Sadness:

31
 Sadness, sorrow or unhappiness is the hardest emotion to fake. It is difficult to
engage the lips in a frown or pull the corners of your eyebrows up without having a
genuine feeling of sadness.

-Inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn up

-Corner of the lips are drawn down

-Jaw is drawn back

-Lower lip pouts out

I would highly recommend memorizing these seven. I have a little cheat sheet at the end of this
workbook. These are highly helpful in decoding people’s emotions and spotting lies.

Remember: There is no lying microexpression. In fact, microexpressions are honest displays of

emotions. What you are looking for, again, is congruency. Your subject’s face should match their
words. If they say they are angry, they should show anger. If they say they are sad, they should show
sadness. A microexpression becomes a red flag when it doesn’t match the words or when you see a
microexpression where it shouldn’t be.

32
Facial Baseline

Some people have what I call a Facial Punctuator. A facial punctuator is a common expression that a
subject uses even if they do not feel the emotion. Not everyone has a facial punctuator, but some
people show contempt all the time, even when they don’t really mean it. Or other people hold their
eyebrows in anger even though they are not really angry. This means that for this particular
subject, that microexpression is a part of their baseline and therefore NOT a red flag. I like to
know the facial punctuators of people in my life because it alerts me to not give them much weight
as red flags. Don’t forget to look at facial expressions while baselining!

Squelching

There is one more interesting thing that happens with liars. We have observed that liars will
sometimes try to control their microexpressions or suppress a true emotion when lying. Now,
microexpressions cannot be controlled—they are automatic. However if someone is really trying to
cover one up they can do something called squelching. It is similar to what happens when you try to
stop a yawn. Have you ever tried this? It’s almost impossible and you end up making a very weird
face! Squelching is the same thing with the whole face. It happens when a subject, while trying to
stifle an expression, mish mashes their face together. If you see someone squelch—know that they
are trying to conceal a true emotion from coming out!

Here are a few additional notes about the seven universal microexpressions:

 Surprise and fear are often confused, as they are similar emotions. It is very important
to know the difference between these two emotions. Think of the question, “Did you
know that Jim cheated on Laura?” A look of surprise on your significant other’s face
would mean something much different than fear. Surprise would be an appropriate
reaction to finding out about someone cheating. Fear might cause you to ask some
additional questions about your significant other’s knowledge or behavior. The
easiest way to tell the difference is by watching the eyebrows—surprise has upside
down U’s and fear usually has eyebrows in a flat line.

 Anger can be confused with determination or concentration. This is why it is

important to baseline someone and take note of how they look when they are
concentrating, nervous or excited. The seven universal microexpressions are the same
for everyone, but concentration can look vaguely like anger if you do not pay
attention.

 Sometimes knowing which emotion you are seeing is just as important as an emotion
you are NOT seeing. For example, if you accuse your subject of breaking an office
rule and they don’t show surprise, they probably knew they did something wrong and
are afraid of getting caught. If you tell a friend some good news and they do not show
genuine happiness they might be covering up feelings of jealousy.

33
Below I have two side pictures of a real smile and a fake one. Can you tell which smile is real?Hint:
It’s all in the crow’s feet!

A.

B.

Answer: B. This is the real smile because you can see the muscles along the sides of the eye are
activated (crow’s feet).

34
Phone & Email
Most of the cues we have talked about thus far have been visual—you need to see someone in person
or on video to be able to spot them. But luckily, there are some very reliable common red flags that
are purely auditory or verbal so you can spot them in emails or on the phone. This type of lie
detection is called Statement Analysis.

Statement Analysis is all about analyzing how people use words, grammar, syntax
and speech to conceal lies.

This is very helpful if you are an auditory learner—not everyone is as strong spotting visual cues
and/or if you spend a lot of time on the phone or email. Let’s go through the common red flags for
the phone:

 Baseline Changes: Any auditory changes to the baseline are incredibly important to note.
These can be affectations like scoffs, sighs, swallows, throat clearing or coughs. Or these
could be auditory characteristics like volume, speaking pace, breathiness, accent or
inflections. Now remember these are only red flags when they differ from your subject’s
baseline! So if someone does a lot of throat clearing during their baseline, this would not be a
red flag to note. However if someone is a slow talker and then all of a sudden speeds up in an
area, that would be a red flag and go into their column.

 The Question Inflection: Another common red flag is when someone asks you their
statement instead of telling you their statement. When someone goes up at the end of their
sentences, this is called the question inflection. If someone does not believe what they are
saying or they are telling you something and wondering if you believe them they might ask
you, “No, I didn’t?” instead of “No, I didn’t.”

 Pitch & Tone: People often use a different pitch or voice tone when lying. Be sure to pay
attention to someone’s vocal pitch and voice tone during baselining to look for differences.

 Secret Memorization: Another common trap liars fall into is they sound overly memorized,
practiced or rehearsed. This might even come out sounding very formal. Why? If they have
practiced their lie in their head, it sounds like they are reading from something or delivering a
speech, which sounds nothing like their baseline. This is a huge red flag.

Now that we have talked about some of the auditory red flags, let’s go into the heart of statement
analysis—how liars use and change their words. These are very specific cues so I am going to go
through them one by one.

35
 Use of Emphatic Language:For some reason, liars will typically over emphasize the desired
truth of their statements. They tend to use Swear to God, Honestly, To Be Frank, To Tell
You the Truth more often than truthtellers.

 Suspicious Verbals: You also want to watch out for suspicious verbal behavior. Truth tellers
usually speak smoothly—they are either recalling a memory or explaining something they
really believe. Liars are more hesitant so they can have awkward stalls or pauses as they
scramble to come up with a lie or unfinished and uneven sentences or repetitions as they buy
for time.

 Less Personal Pronouns: In the study "Lying Words: Predicting Deception from Linguistic
Styles" the researchers found that liars tend to use fewer first person singular pronouns. So
less I, me and my. Why? They want to disassociate themselves from the lie. So instead of
saying, “I had fun last night” they might say, “Last night was fun.” Or instead of “I did not
take the money” they might say, “There is no way the money could be gone.” Or instead of
“I didn’t have a party here.” They might say, “There was no party here.”

 Tense Confusion: Another way to figure out if someone has switched from truth to a lie is if
the tense suddenly gets confused. For example, a truth teller will recall an entire story in past
tense—because it is a memory. A liar might use present tense because they are imagining
what it would be like if they did something. This is especially easy to spot in writing.

 Would, Should, Could: Liars will also use would, should, could instead of saying “I didn’t.”
For example, someone might say “I would never cheat.” Instead of “I didn’t cheat.” This is a
subconscious way of avoiding having to lie.

 Less Contractions: Liars typically want to overemphasize their fake innocence. So they tend
to use less contractions. Instead of saying, “I didn’t have sexual relations with that person.”
They might say, “I did NOT have sexual relations with that person.” The honest person
wants to get out the truth as quickly as possible so if Bill Clinton was telling the truth he
would probably have said something like, “I didn’t have sex with her.” Instead he
overemphasized the “not” AND added distancing language—“that woman.”

 Minimizing: Liars will often try to minimize the significance of the issue. They might play
down the importance of something or offer lenient punishment suggestions. This is wishful
lying—hoping their lie isn’t that big of a deal.

 Qualifiers & Modifiers: The use of qualifiers and modifiers like Probably, Maybe, Most
Likely, Pretty Sure and Must Have are all types of verbal avoidance. These kinds of

36
 noncommittal statements are red flags. You hear them when someone does not want to take
full blame for something. For example, if you ask someone, “Did you tell the client about the
issue?” a liar might hedge their statement by answering, “I must have mentioned it."

 Character Testimony: Sometimes liars will try to convince you that they are a good person
or reference their character instead of giving you information on the lie. For example, when
asking a guilty person if they stole the money, they might say, “My friends will tell you I’m
really honest.” They could also mention something that is truthful to distract you from the lie.
They could say, “Someone stole money? But, I just got a raise.”

Special Note:

It’s fairly obvious but you always want to be on alert for non-answers and over generalizations.
When someone avoids answering your question or gives you a non-answer, it is definitely a red flag.
Non-answers, changes of subject, generalizations or adding unnecessary details are all forms of
verbal avoidance. Remember liars hate actually lying, so sometimes they dance around the lie so
they don’t have to say it directly. Another kind of non-answer is a generalization. Watch out for
liars who avoid answering by giving a broad statement.

Remember these red flags are only red flags when they differ from the baseline! If someone
says, ‘honestly’ all the time, for them that exclamation is null. If someone adds unnecessary
details all the time, for them that is not a red flag. Be sure to take no cues on their own.

37
Step #4: Clusters
Step #4 is pretty simple—it’s one rule: Never take a red flag alone. Let me repeat that: never, ever
take a red flag alone. There is no one cue to mean someone is lying. My general rule is to look for
three to five red flags in a row or around a specific topic. I call this a cluster.

A cluster is a group of behavioral red flags around a certain topic that signal there
might be deception.

When you are interacting with your subject you are looking for a grouping of red flags. Whenever I
see a cluster of red flags I circle them on my Baseline Chart.

You can practice again here:

Baseline: Nervous Baseline: Red Flags:

I have a few tips to make it easier to spot a cluster.

 First, get as much audio data as possible. You want as much to work with as you can
possibly get so try to avoid yes or no questions and stick with asking open-ended questions if
you are trying to get a good read on someone. Why? Its pretty easy to conceal emotions if
you are just answering with yes, no or one-word answers. If you have a subject you are trying
to decode ask as many broad questions as you can, especially ones that require explanation.
This will give you more to read and more opportunities for true emotions to leak out.

38
  Second, get as much visual data as possible. I hate the phone because it only gives me one
method of gathering information—listening. Whenever possible I try to do video interviews
or in-person discussions. And when in person I also try to put people under glass tables or not
behind a table at all. Why? If someone is behind a big conference table I miss all of their leg,
lap and feet behavior. If I’m really lucky I put people in swivel chairs. This accentuates their
movement and makes it really easy to see someone’s fidgeting or swiveling.

 Third, go into your interviews with a goal in mind. I approach all of my interactions with
a basic goal—bond, connect, learn about the person. In this way I am always reading
microexpressions and body language. However, when I am interviewing a hot subject I am
even more goal specific. A hot subject is someone who you suspect might be concealing
something. If you have a hot subject you want to be very purposeful with your questions and
approach. If I have a hot subject I usually prepare my baselining and nervous baselining
questions ahead of time.

Bottom Line:

When you see your first red flag it means pay attention.

When you see a second red flag it means be on alert.

When you see a third red flag it means you have spotted a cluster and need to move to step #5.

39
Step #5: Confirmation
This is the final step: Confirmation!

Confirmation is all about giving someone the benefit of the doubt—and confirming
you actually spotted a lie.

There are a few things you can do after detecting a cluster. Here are your options to confirm what
you saw:

1. Repeat: Are you sure you just saw what you think you saw? Or heard what you think you
heard? I almost always ask the same question again in a different way just to see if the red
flags remain.

2. Circle Back: Sometimes I will let some time pass after a cluster area. I will go back to
chitchat, make them relax, rebuild rapport. And then I will circle back to the area one more
time. This time gives them the opportunity to possibly come clean. So I might say something
like. “You know I am still concerned about XYZ, lets talk it through one more time, this time
lets get straight to the bottom of it.” This way you can either confirm the lie or hopefully get
them to tell you the truth.

3. Follow Up: If I am on the phone with someone or in-person and I spotted a cluster I might
wait to confirm the lie in a different medium and after some time has passed. Often times
liars hate committing their lie to writing because they know it could get them into trouble one
day. I often confirm by saying something like, “Will you summarize this in an email so I can
have it for my records?” Some people will confess right then and there. Others will admit to
truth when it actually comes to writing it down. Worst case, they also put their lie in writing,
and then at least you have it on record.

4. Second Opinion: The other option is to get a second opinion. Bring in a colleague, ask a
friend or partner to listen in. Sometimes a change of person will get your subject to fess up.

5. Second Interview: In job interviews or making a big purchase you might be lucky enough to
do a second meeting or call. If you suspect you saw a cluster, see if you can do a follow-up
call or interview to re-ask the same questions. Sometimes, after time has passed, a subject
will re-commit to the truth and fess up or at least give you more information.

6. Research: Sometimes you can do research on a cluster or hot spot area. If you suspect
someone is lying in an interview you can call their referrals. If you suspect someone is lying
about a transcript you can get a copy from their university. If you suspect a car salesman is
lying to you about a feature, you can do research online. This option relies on you to confirm
the truth or lie.

40
7. More and More and More Rapport: This is probably my most important lie detection
strategy. People don’t like to lie to people they like. The better you are at conversations, the
better you are at first impressions, the higher your charisma and the better lie detector you
will be. This means you will hear less lies and not need to spot them as much! My entire goal
at the Science of People is to teach you people skills. We have tons of free resources on this
if you want to pump up your skills.

 3 Steps to Amazing Conversation will help you activate those conversation skills.
IT’S FREE!

 5 Ways to Optimize Your Online Dating Profileis packed full of tips to

supercharge your profile.

 Captivate: Use Science to Succeed with People is my latest book where I dive into
my 14 favorite human behavior hacks. I give roadmaps to conversations, strategies on
how to build rapport and even break down the science of storytelling.

 People Schoolis all the people skills you never learned in school. We have our next
semester coming up!

41
My goal in this course is to help you to spot lies, but it is also to help you get to truth. So I wanted to
give you a few verbal tactics you can use for Step #5 after you have just spotted a cluster. These will
often get someone to divulge the truth.

 Hypothesize for Them: Liars always have a reason to lie. It might be to protect themselves,
it might
ght be because they feel justified, it might even be because they are angry. Sometimes if
you hypothesize possible rationales and share these with your subject they will confess.

 What’s the Story?Liars typically rehearse their lie before telling it. But they usually only
rehearse their story one way. So if you ask them to tell you the lie in a different way, they
struggle. An honest person will have no problem telling you the story backward
backwards or jumping
around in chronology—since since it is just recall. A liar, however will have a really hard time
telling the story in a different order because it requires a new unrehearsed lie. So if you want
to confirm someone’s story ask them to tell it a different way.

 Post Interview Relief: Liars are often times very relieved after ‘getting through’ a lie. So
they might show an immense amount of Post-Interview
Post Interview Relief. A truth teller does not feel the
burden of their lie so they are not as relieved to finish a conversation. If you see someone
who wants to rush out of a conversation or looks relieved after a hot spot area, you might
want to circle back to confirm one more time.

Here is an example of how all of the steps might work. Let’s say you would like to be able to better
read your colleague, Wyatt, at the office:

Step One: Baseline

During a coffee break one day in the break room you ask Wyatt a few neutral questions about
his plans for the weekend or what he is doing for lunch. You notice Wyatt loosely holds his
torso
orso and leans back against the break room wall. He also nods his head a lot. These are his
regular baseline behaviors. You notice he uses a medium voice tone and clears his throat
every so often.

Step Two: Nervous Baseline

aseline

42
 You decide to also get a nervous baseline because the issue you would like to bring up is a
bit sensitive. You ask Wyatt what he thinks about Ted getting fired last week for stealing
from the company. This causes him to lean towards you and cross his arms over his body in a
stiff way. He drops his voice tone, but continues to nod and clear his throat as he had during
the neutral questions. It seems a stiff upper body is his nervous tell and is what he shows
when talking about tense topics, but everything else is the same as his normal baseline
behavior.

Step Three: Red Flags

Now you get to dig a little deeper into the subject about which you are most curious. You ask
Wyatt about the big project last month and his contribution on the report. You have been
suspicious he did not do as much as he claims. Sure enough, he stiffens his upper body—
mimicking his nervous baseline response. So clearly, this is not a topic he is comfortable
with. Wyatt then flashes a fear microexpression at you when you ask a specific question
about the client in question. Red flag. He then begins to scratch the back of his neck. Red
flag. When you ask more questions you notice he is tapping his foot nervously. Red flag.
Then he touches his forehead in the shame tap—interesting!

Step Four: Cluster

You spotted three red flags in a row—enough to warrant a cluster. Specifically, you spotted
them when talking about the client not just the project in question. And you spotted shame,
which is a very specific hidden emotion.

Step Five: Confirm

You begin to hypothesize different rationales. You wonder if maybe he didn’t do as much
work on the project because he doesn’t like the client—not because he was trying to escape
the work. You call the client to check-in and ask casually about Wyatt. Bingo! It turns out
Wyatt had applied for a job at the company last year and was turned down. He was avoiding
working with the client because he was ashamed. Now you know that you can depend on
him—he is no slacker, but he should be pulled off all work with this specific client.

43
Your Tells
Now it’s time to practice all of these steps by finding your tells! Pull up your Lie to Me video that
you made at the beginning of the course. You are now going to fill out your Baseline Coding Chart
for yourself.

Column #1:The first 3 questions I had you answer are your baselining questions—see how you look
when you are sharing facts with us. Fill out the first column in your Baseline Chart—what do you
sound like, what do you look like, what movement do you make? Be sure to write down everything
from facial expressions to hand gestures here.

Column #2:Next let’s get your nervous baseline for column #2. Questions 4, 5 and 6 –what you ate
for breakfast, your most embarrassing moment and your greatest fears are for your nervous baseline.
How do you look when sharing an embarrassing experience? By the way the breakfast question
always tends to surprise people and so it is a great ‘catch me by surprise’ question for nervous
baselines. Did you find your nervous tells? Write down any changes you notice in your behavior.

Column #3:Then do the 3rd column and see what you do when you lie. Your fake embarrassing
moment and your fake fear are where you are looking at for leaks and incongruencies. As you
deliver your lies what changes? Did you spot your tells? Especially look for the common lying red
flags and see if you do them too. Feel free to have your Red Flag cheat sheet in front of you as you
watch.

Did you have any clusters? 3 or more common red flags in a row? Circle these on your chart. Doing
this will help you identify your tells and is great practice. I find this exercise fascinating and a lot of
fun to do. Ok, go watch your video!

Baseline: Nervous Baseline: Red Flags:

1) What is your name?
2) How old are you?
3) Where are you from?
4) Tell me what you ate for 7) Please take a few
breakfast. seconds to make up an
embarrassing moment.
5) Tell me the story of your most
embarrassing moment. 8) Please take a few
seconds to make up
6) Tell me about one of your your greatest fear—it
greatest fears. Why does it scare should be something
you? you actually enjoy but
try to convince me it is
in fact one of your
greatest fears.

44
 Do
you
sho
wa
lot
of
red
flag
s?

Do
you
have
a
really good example of a lying red flag? Please send me the video to take a look and add to our
research! If you show any common red flags we would love to see your video!

Email me your videos at manager@scienceofpeeople.com or post them in the Lie Detection in 100
Minutes Facebook Group.

45
Master Lie Detector:
What differentiates a master lie detector from an amateur one? In this section I have a few last tips to
take your skills to the next level.

#1: Prevention is Better than Detection

It is easier to spot lies when you hear less of them. It is also better if you do not hear lies in the first
place. There are a few prevention techniques you can use to set yourself up for more honest
interactions.

These are a few tips from Dan Ariely’s masterpiece, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We
Lie to Everyone—especially ourselves.

 Prime for Honesty

 Enact Moral Reminders
 Use Honor Codes
 Add Signatures
 Highlight Supervision

#2: If You Lie, you Hear More Lies

This should go without saying, but this course is about more honesty. This means encouraging
honesty in others AND yourself.

In a study called "The Price of Deceptive Behavior: Disliking and Lying to People Who Lie to Us"
fromJournal of Experimental Social Psychologywe learn some interesting facts about liars:

 We do not like liars

 We lie more when we feel we are being lied to

This means we have to try to live in honesty if we want to see more honesty.

#3: Practice Makes Almost Perfect

You can never be a perfect lie-spotter, but we can get our numbers up high. The goal is to make the
muscle automatic. You want to train with the following resources:

• Videos: The best part of videos is you can pause and replay them without having to worry
about your responses.

46
• TV Shows: We have favorite shows you can use to practice lie detection. Here is a list of our
favorites: http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2014/07/lie-detection-body-language-practice-
videos/

• Websites:Check out the websites Poltifact and Truth Teller to see liars in action.

47
Practice:
Use the following chart to practice on videos you watch. You can also draw three columns on any
piece of paper as you watch!

Baseline: Nervous Baseline: Red Flags:

48
Next Steps

We hope that this course has been fun, illuminating and fascinating for you! Most importantly, we
hope you will be able to have more honest interactions with everyone you meet. Here are some next
steps for you:

1. Check your progress:

 Take the Lie Spotting Test again!

ScienceofPeople.com/Lies

2. Keep practicing!
 Make sure you follow our YouTube channel for our latest and greatest videos, research and
science.

YouTube Channel

3. Want more?
 Want to learn more about how people work? Consider joining our signature program:

People School
We are opening are next class soon!

49
 Microexpressions Cheat Sheet

Description:
Fear: -Brows are raised and drawn together, usually in a
flat line

-Wrinkles in the forehead are in the center between

the brows, not across

-Upper eyelid is raised, but the lower lid is tense and

drawn up

-Upper eye has white showing, but not the lower

white

-Mouth is open and lips are slightly tensed or

stretched and drawn back

Happiness: -Corners of the lips are drawn back and up in a smile

-Mouth may or may not be parted, teeth exposed

-A crease runs from outer nose to outer lip

-Cheeks are raised

-Lower lid may show wrinkles or be tense

-Crows feet near the outside of the eyes

50
Anger:
-The brows are lowered and drawn together

-Vertical lines appear between the brows

-Lower lid is tensed

-Eyes hard stare or bulging

-Lips can be pressed firmly together with corners

down or square shape as if shouting

-Nostrils may be dilated

-The lower jaw juts out

51
Contempt:
-One-sided mouth raise

Surprise: -The brows are raised and curved—they should look

like upside-down U’s

-Skin below the brow is stretched

-There can be horizontal wrinkles across the forehead

-Eyelids are opened, with the white of the eye

showing above and below

-Jaw drops open and teeth are parted. The lips, jaw
and mouth stays loose

Disgust: -Upper lip is raised

52
 -Nose is wrinkled

-Cheeks are raised

-Lines show below the lower lid

Sadness: -Inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn up

-Corner of the lips are drawn down

-Jaw is drawn back

-Lower lip pouts out

53
Red Flag Cheat Sheet

Cue: Summary:

Any nonverbal changes from a subject’s

Physical Baseline Changes baseline or nervous baseline.

Whenever a subject’s verbal does not align

Incongruent Nonverbal with their nonverbal; when a subject has
inconsistent verbal and nonverbal cues.

Lip Purse When a subject mashes or presses their lips

together.

When a subject protects their body or face

with their arms, hands or objects. This
Blocking creates a barrier between the subject and a
potential threat.

Eye Blocking When a subject touches, rubs, pulls or

covers their eyes as if to ‘block’ out a
threat or lie.

When a subject self-touches in order to

calm themselves down. This can come out
Self-Soothing in hand wringing, arm rubbing, neck
touching or jewelry fidgeting.

When a subject covers, touches or self-

soothes with their mouth. This might be a
Mouth Moves finger to the lips, biting a pen or chewing
on cuticles.

When a subject touches, itches, pulls or

Nose Swells rubs their nose.

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 A small shoulder lift from either of the
One-Sided Shoulder Shrug subject’s shoulders.

When a subject says yes, but shakes their

Incongruent Nod head no or says no, but shakes their head
yes.

Any physiological changes to the subject

Autonomic Nervous System due to nerves—sweating, blanching,
blushing, yawning, deep breathing or deep
swallows.

When the subject attempts to cool down by

Ventilating pulling out their shirt, fanning themselves
or lifting their hair or collar from their
neck.

When a subject lightly touches the side of

Shame Tap their forehead with their fingertips.

When a subject’s eye gaze, eye contact or

Eye Changes blink rate changes from the baselines.

Feet & Fist Features When a subject suddenly makes a fist or

moves their feet in a different way from the
baselines.

When a subject tenses their neck or shrinks

The Turtle down so their shoulders are near their ears.

When a subject touches the area between

The Suprasternal Notch the two collarbones.

When a subject smiles mischievously after

Duping Delight telling a lie.

55
 When a subject angles away, pulls away,
Distancing steps back or turns away in order to get
away from the lie or the punishment of
their lie.

Anytime the subject makes different facial

Facial Baseline Changes expressions from their baselines.

Incongruent Microexpressions When a subject makes one facial

expression, but verbally expresses
something else causing an incongruency.

When a subject attempts to stifle a

Squelching microexpression and makes an odd face.

When a subject sounds different from their

Auditory Baseline Changes baselines.

When the subject asks their statements

The Question Inflection instead of telling them.

When a subject’s pitch or tone changes

Pitch & Tone Changes from their baselines.

Secret Memorization When a subject’s stories or statements

sound memorized.

When a subject uses emphatic language

Emphatic Language and over emphasizes truth.

Suspicious Verbal When a subject stalls, pauses, uses more

ums or uhs. Or when a subject delays
answering with non-answers or over
generalizations.

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Less Personal Pronouns When a subject uses less I, me, my.

When a subject switches from present to

Tense Confusion past tense or past tense to present tense.

When a subject uses more would have,

Would, Could, Should could have or should have happened.

Less Contractions When a subject uses less contractions.

When a subject minimizes the

Minimizing consequences of their actions or the extent
of the lie.

Qualifiers & Modifiers When a subject tries to qualify or modify

their answers.

When a subject tries to prove their honesty

Character Testimony by giving statements of general character.

Inability to Change the Order of the When a subject cannot change the order of
Story their story.

When a subject shows post-interview relief

Post Interview Relief after they are done being questioned.

57
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