Researching people's views on what makes a lie convincing- to the development of language and style of our "april fool" products...

On Yahoo Answers (UK& Ireland) I asked...

"

What makes a lie convincing?

what language/behaviour/tactics make lies believable?
what fools you when being lied to?

-researching for a university project, thank you!

"

The answers I received are as follows...

"The liar telling it needs to be convinced it's the truth."

"If you know the person they usually have consistent ways of acting so noticing those and sticking to them but if it is a stranger usually looking straight forward with a clear voice and during questionable moments looking outward ^ for recalling and < for unaware > is usually what people do when they lie or are thinking of how to lie."

"his/her face, voice and some simple tricks such as, "whose book is that?" "i take it from my friend" you take it from your friend doesn't mean that it's his. it could be yours."

"im pretty good at reading the signs of lies and only 2 people have ever been able to work out my 'tell' when i lie, right right eyebrow raises the smallest amount for a nano second. Mum knows (obviously) and my mates ex boyfriend could randomly tell!

straight face, open body language (ie not hugging yourself or clasping your hands) not fidgeting, touching your face, eye contact and of course a believable lie.

could list every single person I know and their individual tells. but it would be boring"

"To make a lie convincing you need to make yourself assertive yet not show and of the signs known to that someone is lying.

Hints and trick to tell if someone generally lies is slurring of the words, scraching of the head and eye rolling ( eye rolling means there thinking of some thing without showing easier signs.
A tactic is not to be aggresive or to show signs of weakness, a shocked face when someone says your lying generally means that you are, keeping to your normal self will make a lie believable.

But however if you do lie alot then it can get to a stage where people will not believe you even if you speak the truth.

Hope it helps"

"first of all eye contact,an unwavering gaze is suspicious and so is someone constantly breaking eye contact, so breaking eye contact while thinking,trying to recall something,or for some other excuse is how people normally converse through eye contact.

secondly, your body posture, this is different for everyone, so just record a conversation to see your normal posture.

lastly, make your speech steady and unwavering, pause only when thinking or other reasons to normally pause.

I hope this helps!!"

More than anything, this response will help us with our "poker faces" when presenting our "products" as oppossed to the writing itself- we will draw our experience of convincing lies in the written word through our design practice and development from the past week.