how to become a human lie detector

When chasing slow payers, always allow debtors to “save face” – because, if YOU don’t, they’ll do something to make sure that they do – save face.

And, sometimes, they’ll go to extremes to do so!!

One way to save face, of course, is to lie. In other words, NOT to give the real reason why payment can’t be made.  

But wouldn’t life be much easier if you knew the real reason behind the excuse given?  Of course it would!  So, how do you tell if someone’s telling a fib?

There are countless ways.  But the easiest way – by far – is to always establish a baseline.

To quote from “Psychology Today” … A baseline can be established during the first few minutes of a conversation. A baseline consists of verbal patterns and paralinguistic cues of the person to whom you are talking.

The best method to establish a baseline is to engage the person in social pleasantries such as the weather or other neutral topics and catalogue the person’s speech patterns and paralinguistic cues.

The baseline is established during the part of the conversation when the person you are talking to has no reason to lie. Later, during the conversation, you can listen for any deviations from the person’s baseline.

Deviations from the baseline indicate a degree of anxiety. Various factors can cause anxiety, including deception.

One deviation from the baseline does not indicate deception. Look for a cluster of baseline changes before concluding deception.

Deviation clusters typically occur during deception.  Read the full article here.

In a face to face meeting, it’s much easier.  This link – Become a Human Lie Detector – is extremely useful.  

But, again, it’s establishing the baseline that’s the key.

This short video shows us what to look for.