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How to Tell When Someone is Lying

Name: How to Tell When Someone is Lying
Uploaded: 2025-04-02T16:00:54+00:00
Duration: 1 min 27 s
Channel: Shanli Liu, CPA, CTP
Description: In this instructional monologue, Shanli Liu, CPA, CTP, explains practical techniques for spotting lies during an interview or interrogation. She…

2 Apr 2025 · 1 min

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1:27

In this instructional monologue, Shanli Liu, CPA, CTP, explains practical techniques for spotting lies during an interview or interrogation. She highlights three key verbal cues: (1) the use of extreme absolutes such as “never” or “always,” which often signal dishonesty because most behaviors are not truly absolute; (2) overly rapid, un‑breath‑taken answers that suggest the speaker is trying to avoid thinking through the question, indicating a possible cover story; and (3) the value of a brief pause (about five seconds) followed by asking the interviewee to repeat their answer more slowly, which can force a more considered response. Liu also advises giving the interviewee an “out” – a way to admit the truth without feeling trapped – after they have used a risky word, thereby encouraging honesty. The overall purpose is to equip interviewers with concrete, observable language patterns and simple procedural steps to improve truth‑verification in everyday or professional settings.

Chapters

Extremes are a dead giveaway that they're usually not telling the truth. Ask them the question, were you texting while you were driving that day? Were you texting while you were driving that day? No, I never text. Never text when I drive. Now notice I said a big word. I said never. Never is an extreme. Extremes are a dead giveaway that they're usually not telling the truth. Everybody texts when they drive at some point in time, even in your car. Never and always or never, it's always or never true. So that's a big one. Second of all, I answered really quickly. I didn't breathe and really think about it and try and actually show you that I was trying to remember in time, give you a really immediate response. So what you're going to do, we're going to replay it again. I'm going to say same exact thing, and I'm going to ask you to give me about 5 seconds of time, and then I want you to repeat what I said slower. Cool. So ask me if I was texting while I was driving that day. Were you texting while you were driving that day? No, no, never. I never text when I drive. You never text when you drive. Oh, so even that, I didn't even like that. So what they'll do most often is they'll even go, well, I mean, sometimes I do. 'Cause now they, you just hinge on that word never. So now they know, oh, that's a risk word. And they'll kind of come out of it and go, I mean, sometimes I do. I mean, maybe, but hardly ever, hardly ever. When that happens, what you typically want to do is give them an out. Now they've put themselves into a corner and now they're looking for an out. And a way to do that is go, if you were texting, it's okay.