1

Look for micro-expressions. Micro-expressions are facial expressions that flash

on a person's face for a fraction of a second and reveal the person's true emoti
on, underneath the lie. Some people may be naturally sensitive to them but almos
t anybody can train themselves to detect these micro-expressions. Typically, in a
person who is lying, his or her micro-expression will be an emotion of distress
, characterized by the eyebrows being drawn upwards towards the middle of the fo
rehead, causing short lines to appear across the skin of the forehead.

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2
Look for nose touching and mouth covering. People tend to touch the nose more wh
en lying and a great deal less when telling the truth.[1] This is perhaps due to
a rush of adrenaline to the capillaries in the nose, causing the nose to itch.[
2][3] A lying person is more likely to cover his or her mouth with a hand or to
place the hands near the mouth, almost as if to cover the lies coming forth. If
the mouth appears tense and the lips are pursed, this can indicate distress.[4][
5]

3
Notice the person's eye movements. You can usually tell if a person is rememberi
ng something or making something up based on eye movements. When people remember
details, their eyes move up and to the left if they are right-handed. When righ
t-handed people make something up, their eyes move up and to the right. The reve
rse is true of left-handed people. People also tend to blink more rapidly ("eye
flutter") as they're telling a lie. More common in men than in women, another te
ll of a lie can be rubbing the eyes.[1] Watch the eyelids. These tend to close lo
nger than the usual blink when a person sees or hears something he or she doesn'
t agree with.[4] However, this can be a very minute change, so you will need to
know how the person blinks normally during a non-stressful situation for accurat
e comparison. If the hands or fingers also go to the eyes, this may be another i
ndicator of trying to "block out" the truth.[4]
Be careful about assessing the truthfulness of someone's statement based on eye
movements alone. Recent scientific studies have cast doubt on the idea that look
ing a certain direction can help pinpoint someone who is lying.[6][7] Many scien
tists believe that eye directionality is a statistically poor indicator of truth
fulness.

4
Do not use eye contact or lack of it as a sole indicator of truthfulness. Contra
ry to popular belief, a liar does not always avoid eye contact.[1] Humans natura
lly break eye contact and look at non-moving objects to help them focus and reme
mber. Liars may deliberately make eye contact to seem more sincere; this can be
practiced to overcome any discomfort, as a way of "proving" that truth is being
told. Indeed, it has been shown that some liars tend to increase the level of eye
contact in response to the fact that investigators have often considered eye co
ntact as a tell.[4] Clearly, only use eye contact aversion as one indicator in a
general context of increasing distress when being asked difficult questions.