For whatever reasons, good or bad, the act of lying is still not a good character trait to have in a person. It should be avoided and must not be tolerated. It would be interesting to know if you have ways of determining if a person is lying. There are useful tips to learn how to detect if somebody you know is lying to you.

Remember to observe body language and facial expressions. Look at the body movements closely. Most notable signs are the following:

• The voice is usually higher in pitch than the normal pitch the person has.

• The body becomes stiff and face becomes slightly pale.

• The lips become pale and thinner. Tightness around the lips is observed.

• Nostrils open wider and breathing may become heavier.

• There is no direct eye contact; the person may look down or look somewhere else.

• The hands are turned away from you, closed or start to perspire, or kept inside pockets.

• The person becomes restless by touching his face, scratching of nose and ears.

When asked a question a person who is lying may take some time to answer it. There is a slight clearing of throat and voice before answering. The facial expressions don’t normally match what is said and the movements of the hands, feet and body are more towards the person who is lying. The person may shift balance from one foot to the other and his hands are kept to his pockets or are held together across midway the stomach.

The emotions being expressed are delayed and confused. The emotions and gestures don’t seem to jibe with each other. There are more expressions of frowning, deep creases between the eyebrows and mouth movements are limited to faking more emotions. A good example would be smiling which should be shown in the eyes, the cheeks or all over the face instead of just limiting around the lips.

Someone who is lying will always be defensive. There may be a lot of things said or additional information which are not really important, but the person would include these to avoid being caught. More often, liars may speak in monotones and they also speak more softly than normal and at times their speech is garbled. They seemed to be rattled when talking.

If you want to test if someone is already lying to your face, pretend to change the conversation quickly to another topic. If the person quickly follows suit, seems more relaxed talking, and then he might as well be guilty. Normally, a person who is not lying would get confused if a change of subject quickly happens in the middle of a conversation.

Try to look out for signs of sarcasm or sudden dry humor as these are signs, which a lying person may use to avoid getting caught. Be on the alert for insinuations rather than statements. Watch out for phrases like "Believe me" or "to tell you the truth" as these may be deceptive phrases already.