I Know You're Lying: The Science of Body Language

Everyone knows about the intangible, or (sometimes,) not so intangible science of body language. We look for it in others, we think we know how to interpret the gestures correctly and think that we know all about the person from spending a few moments minutes with them.

In situations where body language can be a compounding factor - such as at job interviews, or going on that first date; some people attempt to control their body language in a way that would be beneficial to their desired outcome.

However, true body language can't be faked. If it was possible to redefine the term, I'd say:

"Body language is the way your mind and body reacts together, before you have any idea that it is indeed, reacting."

Anyone who's prepared to put in the time, can learn how to read body language, but it takes more than just recognizing the more obvious signs identified by 'experts.' If you're really serious about wanting to harness this very useful skill, you're going to have to put some work in beforehand.

Learning Body Language:

Pick three or four people that you can use as study cases. Allocate no less than thirty minutes per day, per person, (without their knowledge,) and concentrate on surreptiously studying their behavior in a conversation each day.

Your thirty minutes, could involve having lunch with a friend at work or family member - you could also watch a discussion between two other people; or you could study people talking to each other while you're at an airport. There are plenty of places where you can train yourself to read the body language in other people.

Children are easy to read, since they haven't had a lifetime in which to even subconsciously refine their body language. A common gesture for children who utter a lie, is the sudden, rapid movement of both hands slapped across their mouth.

If this gesture was something an adult often did as a child, throughout his life he will probably have subconsciously refined that sudden movement, to instead touch somewhere around his mouth or nose as he's speaking the lie. More often than not, someone who exhibits these actions, is being less than truthful.