CHAPTER 2.

DISCUSSION.

What are the different ways to figure out if someone is lying?

I. Definition and Types of Lies.

               Lie is normally defined as a false statement to a person who knows it's not the whole truth. intentionally.  It is saying things to someone when you clearly know that it's not the whole truth. Lying is not necessarily there to deceive in a sinister way - people lie to protect themselves, to protect others, as well as to use. Researches said that lying is just normal and it's part of our nature.

              Other definition of Lie is (a) "an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive"; (b) "an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker"; (c) "something that misleads or deceives" - according to Merriam - Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lie). It is a situation involving deception. In short, it's an intentionally false statement.

               Aside from the bad lie, or "black" lie. There is another type of lie. the "WHITE LIE." It's the kind of lie that is on the good side. It is done to protect someone or food one's good sake. White lies, for instance, are harmless. Not so. In addition to causing increased suspicion and doubt from those who uncover them. White Lies are harmless, and sometimes also beneficial.

               A White Lies is a harmless or trivial lie. It is done to avoid hurting someone's feeling. Urban Dictionary defined White Lie as (a) "A lie with good intentions."; (b) "A lie told with the intent of sparing someone’s feelings.". (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white%20lie), 

               However, in an article entitled, "White Lies, What's the Harm?", John Seeley said that White lies are more dangerous. It hurts your self esteem, and therefore all relationships. Each one may not be damaging, but if you find yourself doing it daily or more, it will began to add up. Some white lies make logical sense. If it avoids hurting someone else’s feelings, maybe it’s better that being completely honest. After all honesty without compassion is cruelty. (http://www.getunstuck.com/articles/whitelies.php)

II. Ways on how to know when someone is lying.

A. By using your senses.

               Wouldn't it be great if you could tell when someone is lying? Even better, with just using your senses. You don't need to buy your own Lie Detector just to know if who's lying. You need to learn to be a good observer. You just need to ask the right questions and observe their body language to catch them in the act. 

               It's really hard to determine when someone's lying. However, an article entitled, "How Lying Works", Tom Scheve taught some ways on how to detect when someone is lying. The article helped out on how to separate liars from the truth-tellers. (http://people.howstuffworks.com/lying4.htm)

Establish the baseline. First, establish the person's behaviour, mood, and mannerism. Before you start questioning that person, observe. Is he nervous? Is he fidgeting? Is he distracted? Liars can look directly into your eyes, but you'll notice something. If the person blinks too much, or makes no eye contact. Or if he gets offended easily when you asks question, that's a red flag.

Look for deviation from the baseline. Spot for a deviation from an established pattern of behaviour. Before you can detect if the person is lying, you need to know the behaviour of that person. If the person you're talking to isn't much of a talker, but suddenly became talkative when you start questioning her, that's a hint. Try to observe if the person pauses before answering, because that's the time when our brain fabricated data. 

Listen. There are times that a person doesn't show much of body language. You need to observe the verbal information you receive. Lies make us chatty. A liar may talk a lot to win you over, but most of those extra sentences are fluff. Phrases like “The truth is” or “To be honest” can mean that if they aren't lying to you now, they were earlier.

Pause. When telling a lie, the liar will usually make up events as he talks. This usually results in slower talking speed or in stopping many times while talking in order to find what to say. You'll notice that the person pause to think before answering you. The pause is a great torture for liars. You'll find out the inconsistency on his words because of too much thinking of excuses.

Change of Subject. A person who wants to hide something will usually try to avoid bringing it up in the conversation. Try to talk about anything related to the situation without addressing it directly and see if the person tries to jump to another topic. When the person felt that the subject is changing, he'll start to be comfortable. Observe and see if the person's behaviour is coming back to its baseline.

               This steps can help you to detect lies. As Scheve said, "The ability to lie is a cognitive accomplishment. While we look down on the practice from a moraland ethical point of view, lying isn't normally done without a pretty good motive". We must detect lies to avoid problems. (http://people.howstuffworks.com/lying1.htm)

B. By using Lie Detectors.

               Lie Detector is an easy way to determine when someone is lying. You don't need to use your senses, just put the person in the detector, ask question, then poof! The truth will be revealed. But the disadvantage of this, it costs so much and normally, this is used with criminal investigations.

               Lie Detectors are instruments that monitor a person's physiological reactions. These Lie Detectors can't detect directly if a person is lying. When asked a question, the detector will see the change in a person'a heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and electro-dermal activity(sweatiness in fingers). If these changes in the comparison of the normal level, fluctuations will indicate that the person is indeed lying.

                Kevin Bonsor, who wrote an article entitled, "How Lie Detector Works", stated that Undergoing a lie detector test can be an intimidating experience that can challenge the nerves of even the most stoic person. You are sitting there with wires and tubes attached to and wrapped around your body. Even if you have nothing to hide, you could be afraid that the metal-box instrument sitting next to you will say otherwise. Fittingly, undergoing the uncomfortable experience of a polygraph test is often referred to as "going on the box." (http://people.howstuffworks.com/lie-detector3.htm)

               However, some people still don't believe that Lie Detector works. In the same article, it stated, "Polygraph testing is probably only around 70 percent accurate, and it has a great bias against truthful people. Then, what the proponents say, looking at the same research, they reach a quite different conclusion, and that is that polygraph testing is around 90 percent accurate.". (http://people.howstuffworks.com/lie-detector4.htm)