Learning to distinguish between natural and unnatural nonverbal behaviors is a critical skill-set for effective interviewing. Over 140 years ago, Charles Darwin postulated that mammals reliably show emotion in their faces, and over 50 years ago psychologist Paul Ekman, confirmed Darwin’s theory with his studies relating to facial expressions and body movements.
Among Ekman’s many findings… “anxiety and fear produce sub-conscious reactions that we cannot control or help.” For instance, heart rate and blood pressure increase, shallow breathing, a dry mouth and sweaty hand palms and finger tips all are “stress signals,” and, as you are probably aware, a polygraph machine measures those changes fairly accurately.
There are many other types of body movements that coincide with deceptive statements. Several are listed below, but be aware that they might simply be a habit and not unique to a falsehood. Experienced interviewers look at a complete set of behaviors (both verbal and nonverbal) to ensure that body movements have relevance to statements.
- Self-touching, especially if excessive, may relate to the onset or the increase of stress. For instance, scratching a nose, stroking the chin, or rubbing the thighs, the manner in which a person stands, their orientation and posture can be indicative of lying.
- A person’s posture is often more sincere than his / her physical gestures, and the more they lie, the more unnatural it becomes.
- Hand gesturing will become reduced when people are deceitful. Experts have found that this is an unconscious change that occurs when liars are afraid of giving themselves away. They tend to sit on their hands, fold their arms, or clap their hands together — anything, in fact, to stop them moving.
Look for any unnatural physical changes that coincide with incomplete answers to questions or statements that do not make sense. Most people are not professional liars, and many times they are not even aware of expressions and body movements that relate to what they are discussing. Paying attention to such movements and practice questioning that will provoke such movements in casual encounters will widen your understanding of the relevance of nonverbal physical moves.
Research North, Inc. (RNI), is a professional private detective service providing support to the business community, the insurance industry and individuals in Michigan and Wisconsin since 1981. The company also offers pre-employment background checks to small and medium sized businesses through a subsidiary called Backgroundcheckswork.com that is fully staffed by professional investigators who are retired from law enforcement.
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