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8 signs you are being lied to.

The majority of people can’t go 10 minutes without telling a lie, which is slightly alarming. Researchers claim 60 per cent of people lie at least once every ten minutes.

That means probably you. Dirty big liars.

Not all lies are big, evil, hairy ones. They can be as simple as, “The bus got stuck in traffic” or “Yes, I worked on that report all night.”

Instead of regarding everything everyone says to you with suspicion…sure you didn’t eat the last biscuit…there are some simple ways to tell if someone is lying. Learn them, and then take them to your next Poker game.

Noah Zandan, author of TED-Ed’s The Language of Lying told the Daily Mail  says we are lied to 10-200 times per day by people who exaggerate or who try and paint themselves in a better light.

"We tell 10-200 lies a day," Noah said, talking about his lesson for the youth and education initiative. "We lie partly to paint a better picture of ourselves, connecting our fantasies to the person we wish we were rather than the person we are."

"Stories based on imaginative experiences are qualitatively different from those based on real experiences. This suggests that creating a false story about a personal topic takes work and results in a different pattern of language use."

The first four of these tips come from a research technique called "linguistic text analysis" and the next four are more traditional methods of sussing out a liar.

1. Liars refer to themselves less so they can distance themselves from the deceptive statement;

2. Liars are more negative because on a subconscious level they feel guilty they are lying;

3. Liars keep it simple by using over-simplified explanations;

4. Liars use long sentences, waffling and padding it out;

Zandan says people don't lie to us because they are bad people, they lie to us because they are trying to paint a better picture of themselves, or they are trying to be the person they wish they were instead of who they really are.

Also, people like to be entertaining.

"Stories based on imaginative experiences are qualitatively different from those based on real experiences."

In this video Mamamia staff confess to chucking a sickie so they could...Article continues after this video.

Physical signs someone is lying to you can also help you figure out what's what. These tips come from the scientific analysis of hours of courtroom footage, shared with the Mirror:

5. They may be scowling or grimacing because they know they are fibbing;

6. Liars often look you straight in the eye so don't ever say, "Look me in the eye and say that", because they can;

7. They trip over their words as they work out what to say next;

8. Liars touch their faces a lot, practicing the art of distraction.

Experts warn that one of these signs doesn't necessarily mean you are being lied to. Normally it's a combination of two or three of them which tells you whether the statements being thrown your way are in any way truthful.

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Top Comments

anon 8 years ago

Come on every 10 minutes!

I mean it seems to me if someone was lying every 10 minutes they would to be doing it just for the heck of it.

I'm not trying to cast myself up as some pillar of honesty, but I don't think my life is that complicated that I have to lie every 10 minutes.

For those of us who aren't having an affair, diddling the books, or have some burning scandalous secret, and actually have a really uneventful life, then how does the constant lying work, when we have NOTHING interesting to lie about? Are people saying things like, "well I just had a
coffee" but those sneaky b***tards actually had a cup of tea? Or conversely are people like me who live a very boring existence actually making crap up to make ourselves more interesting, "yes Phillipe and I had mad passionate sex again last night as his wife is away" when in actual fact I slept alone, and don't even know a Phillipe!

Look yes I do lie at times, but I though the purpose of lying was to cover your tracks, 9 times out of 10 I don't have any tracks to cover, the 1 time out of 10 that I lie is boring crap like pretending I was late because my car broke down (when in fact I was just disorganised).

I feel a bit depressed now I must have a totally boring life if I don't lie that often!

Going to make stuff up tomorrow at work, and try as a little experiment the every ten minute rule to see if I can do it!