So how can someone actually tell if a person is lying?

According to the experts such as Dr. Matsumoto and Dr. Mark Frank, there is no one tell tale sign of deception.  Average men and woman (without training) are only able spot deception about 50% of the time.  Yep that’s right, their odds of detecting deception is no better than chance.

An interesting article in The Morning Post Exchange, depicts Pamela Meyer, a social media expert with an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Public Policy, stating that we are lied to between 10 to 200 times a day.

In the article, Meyer goes on to delineate the pandemic of deception she believes we are facing today.  Throughout the accompanied video she “arms people with tools that can help take back the truth”.  Much of what she says is backed by scientific research on nonverbal communication, body language and the seven universal facial expression of emotion.

Scientific American also chimes in on the debate of body language and communication.  The article comments on mis-communication due to our advances in technology.  With the popularity of texting and emailing (especially since the invention of smartphones, which makes access to the internet readily available)  communication has lost some important social aspects necessary for understanding.   The succinct article suggests that communication is a two-way street and hand gestures as well as vocal inflection and microexpressions play a significant role in how we are interpreted (i.e. understood) and how we interpret others.

As our technology advances exponentially, we are able to realize the benefits and limitations of the devices we use today to detect deception.

One example is the polygraph machine, which was invented in the early 20th century which is still being used today. The reliability of the polygraph is debatable and it is not admissible in a court of law, but law enforcement agencies use polygraph machines all the time.  So what are the benefits and limitations of such a device? We previously blogged about the polygraph conundrum and its pros and cons.

Take a look at the video below from Michael Shermer (which we originally viewed on Eric Goulard’s blog), which poses a potential answer to the question:  Can the polygraph machine really scientifically measure if someone is lying?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many people believe that the idea that familiarity will lead to better and more effective emotional communication.  However, research has been unsuccessful in substantiating this claim.

This doesn’t seem so far fetched since people in close relationships spend a lot of time with each other.  They interact and see each other’s emotions more often than mere acquaintances or strangers.

Some evidence in the study suggests that spouses are more accurate than strangers in deciphering one another person’s facial expressions and that men were more accurate than women.

Research to date has not produced strong consistent evidence to support the belief t hat intimacy leads to greater accuracy in decoding facial expressions.  The evidence seems to suggest quite the opposite that people in close relationships especially women are no more accurate in deciphering facial expressions of friends or partners than of strangers.

Overall the study found that compared to strangers, people were not better at recognizing facial expressions of themselves, dating partners, or friends.  Most interesting was that this appeared to be most prevalent in women.

One reason, for this, researchers say is that facial expressions are universal; therefore, requiring minimum prior experience with a target person’s expressions.

Other researchers argued that familiarity may affect decoding accuracy but in a complex way.  Other factors come into play such as characteristics of the judge, the target, and the relationship in question.

The article goes on to discuss whether this holds true for subtle expressions of emotion as well.  In research of subtle expressions researchers found that people were most sensitive at the early stages of an expression.  This is probably because at that point the facial cues have the greatest informative and adaptive value.

When public figures are caught in the middle of a lie, it draws an incredible amount of attention and former Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards has done just that.

The public has come to know that not only was he untruthful about his affair, he has recently confessed to fathering a child with his mistress Rielle Hunter. What makes this matter worse is that Edwards initially vehemently denied having an affair and fathering a child with Hunter. While he did come clean about his affair on an interview on Nightline, Edwards still denied knowing anything about the baby.

There are 2 parts to the John Edwards interview on Nightline, which can be seen below.

In the first video, pay particular attention to Edward’s behavior when he is denying the affair (which is shown leading up to the featured interview)

In the second video, pay particular attention to when Edwards is denying knowing anything about the baby we know know he fathered with Rielle Hunter.

Look for discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal actions, hot spots and micro and subtle expressions.

Let us know what you see!

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Please see below for the videos and click here for a link to our products!

SubX Demo:

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MiX 2 Demo:

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1) Do your research.

Understand that there is no tell-tale sign that allows you to know when a person is lying. However, it is important to know that up to 90% of messages communicated in a conversation are nonverbal and that the most common place where these nonverbal messages are seen is on their face.

2) Learn Microexpressions through our MiX Training

Microexpressions are scientifically documented concealed signs of emotion. Everyone has them and they can’t be faked. They occur at less than 1/2 a second usually when people are trying to conceal or repress an emotion.

Take our MiX Microexpression Training- with images from just the frontal view. You can also take our Advanced Microexpression Training- which features images from all angles- frontal, profile and 3/4 side views.

Our training has been scientifically proven to improve your ability to recognize microexpressions in about an hour and has been proven to last even 3 weeks after you have completed the training.

3) Learn Subtle Expressions through our SubX Training

Subtle Expressions are expressions of a low intensity that occur in less intense emotional situations. They are oftentimes not full expressions, such as microexpressions, but rather partial more subtle expressions.

Our SubX Subtle Expression Training was originally developed for and funded by the US Government and recent research suggests that subtle expressions may be the key to learning how to detect deception.

4) Attend the Humintell Webinar

Many people often ask us what the next step is in detecting deception once they have learned micro and subtle expressions.

While learning these hidden signs of emotion is crucial to understanding how people really feel, it is important to know what other nonverbal behaviors to look for in order to evaluate truthfulness.

During our 2-Hour Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar, participants will learn how to improve their skills in reading emotions and other nonverbal behaviors.

Space is limited, so sign up today!

5) Practice!

Once you’ve learned to detect the hidden signs of emotion, practice them everywhere you go. A particularly good way to improve your ability is to watch television- particularly interviews. Try to spot the concealed signs of emotion that you’ve learned!

New research in a paper called Detecting Deception from Emotional and Unemotional Cues by Gemma Warren, Elizabeth Schertler and Peter Bull suggests that subtle expressions, not microexpressions, could be a more accurate tool in detecting deception.

Many people know that microexpressions are hidden signs of emotions that are uncontrollable and last a fraction of a second. These microexpressions were once thought to be an effective method to detecting deception, yet this new study suggests that subtle expressions, not microexpressions, could be the key to catching liars.

In their study, Warren, et. al recorded videos of individuals being either truthful or deceptive. This video footage was designed to generate an emotional or unemotional response. Individuals were then asked to evaluate the level of honesty in those videos and complete the Microexpression Training Tool (developed by myself and Dr. Paul Ekman) and the Subtle Expression Training Tool (SETT). They concluded that the overall performance for emotional lie detection was “significantly positively correlated with reported use of facial expressions and with performance on the Subtle Expression Training Tool (SETT), but not on the Microexpression Training Tool (METT).” This study implies that subtle expression training is positively correlated with emotional lie detection.

What are subtle expressions and how are they different than microexpressions?

Subtle expressions are just as their name suggests: subtle. They occur when a person’s emotional response to a situation, to another person or to the environment around them is of low intensity. They also occur when a person is just starting to feel an emotion.

Learning to see subtle expressions is different than learning to see microexpressions. Being able to see microexpressions of emotion requires that you learn to spot a full expression of emotion visible on the face for a short time: micros “flash” for ½ second or less.  Contrary to this, when you study subtle expressions, you learn how to identify the emotion a person is feeling from slight, subtle variations of the expression being shown.

Want to learn how to detect subtle expressions? Try our SubX Professional Training or our SubX Lite- Our unique training tool is one-of-a-kind and found nowhere else. Complete with 70 practice images, SubX was originally funded by and developed for governmental agencies in the United States. Learning subtle expressions really is the “next step” in learning how to detect deception. If you would like additional training after you’ve taken SubX or SubX Lite, try our SubX Additional Training. Complete with 70 practice images, you can set the speed to adjust your needs and improve your ability to detect subtle expressions.

How is our training different than SETT?

SubX features a baseline test, 13 instructional videos, a practice test with 70 color images and a post test. SETT features no baseline or post test and contains only 37 practice images in black and white.

SubX features instructional videos complete with full video and audio capabilities whereas SETT training contains only written verbiage.

SubX also contains better images-representing multiple ethnicities, genders and age groups whereas SETT features images from only one individual.

SubX contains an instructional video on how to identify expressions when portions of the face are hidden or covered. SETT does not contain this feature.

SubX training was developed for and funded by top governmental agencies in the United States.

Want to try a FREE demo of our SubX Training? Click Here!

5) Only psychologists study and use microexpressions

While it is true that many studies regarding microexpressions have been conducted by psychologists, the knowledge of microexpressions can be used in a wide variety of professions. In general, anyone who engages in face to face interaction with other people can benefit from microexpression training. Law enforcement agents, teachers, lawyers, doctors and sport coaches are just a few professions that can use this knowledge to work smarter, relate better and know what others are really feeling.

6) Microexpressions are culturally dependent

It has been proven by many empirical studies published in scientific, peer reviewed journals that the seven basic emotions of happiness, contempt, sadness, fear, surprise, anger and disgust are universal and not culturally specific. Similarly, microexpressions are not culturally dependent. Everyone gives off microexpressions, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity and they cannot be faked. Don’t forget that people usually illicit these emotions in high stakes situations- when they have something to lose or gain or when they are under great amounts of stress or anxiety.

7) Microexpressions are the key to detecting deception

According to studies, 65-95% of most messages are communicated nonverbally. Of this 65-95%, most leakage occurs in the face. Microexpressions are only one type of nonverbal communication and can be helpful in detecting deception. However, a recent empirical study conducted by Warren et al and published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior suggests that subtle expressions, not microexpressions, were positively correlated with lie detection. This research suggests that subtle expression training is perhaps the next step in learning how to spot liars. How do you learn subtle expressions? Humintell plans to launch SubX, their subtle expression recognition training by the end of this month. This training is one of a kind and is the same training used by governmental agencies within the country. If you wish to by notified when SubX launches, you can subscribe to learn on our website.

About Face

It is not only the first thing we see when we encounter each other; the face is also a pop icon – heavily referenced in our jargon and slang. Think about it: we talk about losing face, saving face, getting face time, getting s*** faced, shopping your face off. Etc.

Why the face? It’s because faces are recognized by many scientists as being the most important communication tool that our body has. Our faces are more important than our voices or the words we speak. We have many ways to express nonverbal behavior: what we do with our hands, feet, gestures, gaze and posture tells a story about what we are thinking and how we are feeling even if our lips are not moving. But if you want to know what is really going on with someone, keep your eyes on their face. Learn to see what you’ve been missing.

Faces are also unbelievably complex. Any idea how many muscles your face has? Over 40 of them, all moving independently of each other. This means that we can produce literally thousands of different expressions. What is even more amazing in light of these thousands of possible expressions, is that we know that for certain emotions – the seven emotions that we call universal (more on that in another blog) – every person on the planet expresses them on their face in exactly the same way.
Here’s a question for you. When someone’s words say one thing and their face says another, which are you likely to believe? The face wins, hands down (no pun intended).  Every time. It is simply our favorite body part.

Lie Spy?

So what about those people on television that read faces and solve crime and other cool stuff? While what you see on television is drama, there is some truth to the methods that the characters use.  It is a real life case of science meeting fiction. Research has shown that people can learn to observe and understand the signs of facial nonverbal communication. In fact, our approach to training has been scientifically proven to improve a person’s ability to detect these signs of facial nonverbal communication. These are the same powerful observation tools – based on the Matsumoto Method – that U.S. Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies use everyday. Scientifically proven, field-tested. It works.

Microexpressions, Macroexpressions and Subtle Expressions?

So you want to become an expert? Welcome to my world! Let’s start with a quick definition of facial nonverbal communication. These expressions of emotion can be categorized as follows:

Macroexpressions. These last from ½ second to 4 seconds: we see them in our daily interactions with people all of the time. It is the face that people show when they have nothing to hide.

Microexpressions last less than ½ second and occur when people are consciously or unconsciously trying to conceal or repress what they are feeling. Most people miss microexpressions, all though there are a few people in the world who are naturals and can spot them without training. Want to know if you are one of them? Go to the Play and Discover section of this website and take the pre-test. If you aren’t a natural, don’t worry.  We know that people can be taught to spot microexpressions relatively easily with about an hour of training.

Subtle expressions are a little different.  We don’t identify them by the amount of time it takes them to move on and off the face; subtle expressions are associated with the intensity of the emotion.  They occur when a person is just starting to feel an emotion, or when their emotional response to a situation, another person or the environment around them is of low intensity. Recently published research showed a high correlation between recognizing subtle expressions and being able to detect deceit. Stay tuned for more on that…

Here’s looking at you.  And everyone else.