Detecting lies can be an important skill to help you stay safe, ensure the right hires for your company, or to just determine if someone is being honest with you or not. Here is one way to help you detect lies.
Establishing a Base Line
When talking to someone, you want to watch verbal and nonverbal reactions to questions the person has no reason to lie about. These can be simple questions as you chat about less serious topics such as the weather, where a person is from, and so on. This chatting can help you get to know a person better, but it also helps establish a “base line.”
You ask enough questions that you can determine the person’s base line and how they react when in their comfort zone. Once you know their comfort zone, you can move to more serious questions.
To Get the Truth, Ask a Presumptive Question
When you ask presumptive questions, they are questions where you are presuming the answer. In a job interview, you may ask the person “When is the last time you stole something?” or “When’s the last time you did drugs?” You are presuming they have stolen something in their lives, as just about all of us have, and you are presuming they’ve done drugs.
When you ask these questions, and the person answers with their base line staying the same, you know they are probably telling you the truth. You don’t get a pause from them or an awkward look because they don’t feel guilty about the question and so they don’t have anything to hide.
Often, an easy way to get the truth is to ask a presumptive question about whatever it is you’d like to know.
Versatility of Presumptive Questions
Criminals will often pose as salesmen when casing your house to see if there’s a reason to come back and rob the place when you’re not home. So, let’s say someone knocks on your door trying to sell you a vacuum.
To help determine if the salesman is legit, you could ask him, “When’s the last time you sold a vacuum to someone?” An honest person will have an immediate answer because they have nothing to hide. However, if the salesman stutters or buys time, that could mean he’s never sold a vacuum and he’s not really a salesman. In a case like this, you may want to notify the police, and if you can tell them the vehicle description and license plate number, so much the better.
Maybe you have a teenager who came home extra late one night, you could ask them, “You told me you were gong to Rob’s house. How come you didn’t tell me where you were really going?” If the kid is truthful, they’ll likely have an instant answer such as, “What are you talking about, Mom? I was at Rob’s house all night.”
But if the child hesitates and you see that guilty look on their face, you know you need to do more digging to find out where they really were.
The bottom line is it’s easier to detect deception than most people realize. By using a presumptive question, you can quickly ferret out honest people from dishonest people, saving you a lot of headaches in the future.
Also, remember to be creative, because there are many situations where you can use a presumptive question, including if you’re a single man or woman on the dating scene. In fact, when Jason Hanson was single, he used to ask women (in a joking tone with a smile), “When’s the last time you slashed an ex-boyfriend’s tires?” And he says one time a girl did tell him she vandalized an ex’s car and he didn’t go on a date with her.
Jason Hanson has videos on lie detecting, and he wrote about presumptive questions in his book Alone and Unafraid: Patriot Defense and Survival Guide. I used this book as a resource for this page.