“You’re Tellin’ Me Everything”
How to Discover the Liar
Lance Armstrong responded to a deposition question on whether he had ever used performance enhancing drugs by stating, “I have never doped. I can say it again, but I’ve said it for seven years.” The attorney taking the deposition almost believed him.
As humans, our natural tendency (before law school) is to trust one another. We like to believe the good in people. However, being burnt on one too many occasionsalters perspective.
We live in a cynical world, possibly rightly so. Lies, deception and insincerity are rampant. Yet, we like to believe plaintiff attorneys strive for truth and justice. We are the purveyors of truth. History is replete with examples of counselors uncovering and overcoming untruthfulness. The tobacco industry, Ford and its firebomb Pinto, drug companies with their “safe” medications, and commercial contamination of water supplies. The list goes on. What if the smoking gun was sitting there right in front of you?
We can learn something from Quentin Tarantino on the subject. VincenzoCoccotti, a devastatingly effective Sicilian mob character in True Romance, extols his people’s ability to lie as “the best in the world.” Coccottiexplains how to snare a liar: “There are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give himself away. A guy’s got seventeen pantomimes. A woman’s got twenty, but a guy’s got seventeen…but, if you know them, like you know your own face, they beat lie detectors all to hell. … You don’t wanna show me nothin’, but you’re tellin’ me everything.”
Webster’s defines pantomime as telling a story by only using bodily and facial movements. In the deponent context, it’s not what they say, but how they say it. So, attorneys must arm ourselves to find the artifice. There is no sure fire trick. It’s difficult to tell the difference between a liar and an honest, stressed-out witness. However, while not definite, we can watch and listen carefully for these common signs of lying:
1. The hands, arms and legs draw in toward the body or face, almost as if a protective mechanism, an attempt to hide or reduce space.[1]
2. The witness places objects between himself and the interrogator.
3. A liar may avoid eye contact and rotate the body away.[2]
4. Emotional gestures are out of sync or contradictory.[3] A forced smile will include only the muscles around the mouth, whereas a natural smile most often includes many facial muscle groups. Forehead muscles push down and the cheeks, jaw and nose may move. Look at the smile. If it’s natural, the eyes become squished. Also, gestures and expressions come after the words, sort of a catching up maneuver to fit the expected reaction. Example: Someone says “I have no idea how fast I was going” and then shakes the head or raise the hands up to demonstrate perplexity. A truthful answer most often delivers the words in sync with a non-verbal gesture.
5. Read microexpressions. San Francisco psychologist Paul Elkman discovered that microexpressions are brief displays of emotion that show what people are really feeling.[4]
6. A guilty person gets defensive, and an innocent person becomes offensive.
7. A liar becomes talkative. He repeats the question in the answer. Each word is enunciated without contraction: “I did not do it” versus “I didn’t do it.” The liar often starts talking and hopes it goes somewhere, thinking on the spot. A more seasoned liar fabricates the story ahead of time. \
8. A liar avoids directly denying the question. Mark McClish, a retired Deputy United States Marshall, and an expert in detecting deception, points out that people don’t want to lie. They, instead, choose the easiest form of deception. One example is using the word “never” as opposed to direct denial.[5] For example, if a defendant was asked whether she sped up for a yellow traffic light, she may state, “I would never do that.” Another example is avoidance. “Did you run the stop sign?” The witness answers, “How many times do I have to say the other driver ran the stop sign?”
9. A person’s demeanor or voice radically changes.[6] First, an attorney must gauge a witness by ascertaining a baseline or control. What is out-of-the-normal behavior for one person, may be everyday routine for another. One can figure out how a person normally acts and speaks by asking several non—threatening questions that give no incentive to lie. Good examples are “Where do you live?”, “Do you have any children?”, “How long have you been married?”, “What kind of car were you driving on the date of the accident?”, and “What color was the vehicle?” Once the substantive questions start, the deponent’s speech cadence may increase, eyes may dart in a different direction, and mood may change abruptly. According to Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI criminal profiler, the bigger the shift, the better chances he’s not telling the truth.[7]
9. Sudden shifts in ability to recall. Whether a witness recalls past events fast or slow, a serious deviation from the norm can be telling. A quick ability to remember self-serving details can indicate rehearsed testimony, possibly hiding the truth. Conversely, a sudden inability to remember specifics might help illuminate a liar who otherwise demonstrated a near flawless memory when going over the birthdates of seven grandchildren.
10.Figeting and fussing for no reason. Guilt and anxiety can make people restless. Barbara Mitchell, a relationship therapist for 34 years, believes liars may perform random physical actions that seem unnecessary—cleaning glasses endlessly, dusting off the clean table in front of them, or swirling that bottle of water.[8]
Maybe life holds three truths instead of two: death, taxes and lying. “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies,” said Oliver Goldsmith, a famous English poet. Sure, none of the above signs matter if you’re not watching and listening intently, but what really matters is what you do with the information. If the liar knows you’re on to the game, the truth’s more likely to emerge. Even if you’re no mobster.
[1] Unique Words: “Never”; Detecting Deception Using Statement Analysis.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] US News and World Report, Ulrich Boser, 3 Ways to Tell if Someone is Lying, May 18, 2009.
[5] Unique Words: “Never”; Detecting Deception Using Statement Analysis.
[6] How to Tell if Someone is Lying.
[7]Id.
[8] Id.