Everyone lies. It doesn’t make you a bad person. People generally lie about three things: facts, opinions and emotions. Lying is common in life and in negotiation. But why? Understanding the reasons can increase empathy and elevate communication to a deeper level of understanding in negotiation and mediation.
Read more here what the most world-renowned expert on lying has to say about why people lie.
As mentioned in the above article, an important pre-cursor in detecting deception is learning to spot micro expressions, which often reveal hidden emotions (note: it is impossible for people to control micro expressions. Thus, if you learn to observe when they happen, they can offer insight. The important thing to remember is that noticing a micro expression does not necessarily provide the reason behind the emotion, and does not necessarily mean the person is lying).
Test your baseline ability to detect lies with this Paul Ekman quiz!
Fun Fact: It is a little-known fact that Pactum Factum Principal Lucia Kanter St. Amour pre-tested (meaning before she even started the 40-hour training in Dr. Paul Ekman’s micro expression and lie detection training) in the top 5% of the population for natural ability to read micro expressions.
Lucia Kanter St. Amour, Pactum Factum Principal