Seven Keys to Detecting Deception

 

Stan Walters will be coming to Dallas on Oct. 26-28 to teach how to detect deception and lying.

$994 Billion dollars a year — that’s what deception and fraud costs American businesses every year.  Everyone lies.  Those lies cost us money, relationships, happiness, time.  Bernie Madoff aside, we are bombarded with people deceiving us and we do not even know it because we do not have the skills to discern a few simple cues. 

According to Stan Walters there are seven keys to detecting lies in people:

1.    Constant: before you can identify any deception you must identify a person’s constant or normal behavior.  A person who lies is deviating or shifting from his/her normal constant when being deceptive.  The more familiar you are with a person’s regular communication the easier it is to interpret deception.  When making a determination about a public figure use interviews and avoids scripted or staged events such as commercials, political ads, speeches, or infomercials.

2.    Change: look for a new behavior or change in the person’s constant OR an existing behavior that stops or changes significantly.  The change is caused by stress associated with the deception.  Three ways a person will change: a new behavior not previously seen, an existing behavior will stop or the existing behavior has a significant change. Watch for timely changes in verbal or nonverbal behavior

3.    Clusters: a cluster of behaviors is more significant than a single, random behavior.  Human communication is a very complex array of verbal and nonverbal behavior each of which is responding to internal and external stimuli.  We cannot apply a single gesture to all people.  Multiple symptoms occurring at one moment when discussing a single issue can indicate a possibility of deception.

4.    Consistency: a consistent reaction to a specific issue can be a significant indicator of a lie.  For a period of time the subject keeps reacting to the same hot topic or issue.  You are not looking for the same changes every time.  Just that there are changes every time and that they arise in clusters.  When someone is evasive every time a subject comes up is an example.

5.    Preconceptions: Approach conversations with an open mind.  Observations or misconceptions based on preconceptions are not reliable.  Put aside preconceptions to be the best truth detector.  If you don’t, all you will see are the symptoms you are expecting to confirm what you already thought.

6.    Contamination: you are a stimulus and some of your behaviors can affect the behaviors and reactions of another person in a way that contaminates the accuracy of your observations.  In other words, your behavior has an impact on the situation you are observing.  What vibes are you giving off?  Remember, the other person is paying just as much attention to reading you as you are them.

7.    Cross-checking: before drawing any conclusions, it is necessary to review your observations and cross-check the data.  You cannot rely on ‘feelings’ to accurately determine deception.  Reviewing each step in your analysis is key to identifying dishonesty in people.