Kinesics
By Tan Wei Heng, Toh Wei Chuan,
Khor Yuk Liang, Ch'ng Liyang William
Detecting Deceit from Body
As we had said earlier, the reason why body language leaks clues of deceit is because when the body is under stress, it unintentionally leaks out gestures of the liar's true feelings or emotions.
One simple but yet a common clue leaked by many liars is body gestures called 'emblem'. Emblems are body gestures that have a very precise meaning and are known to everyone in a cultural group.
For example is a shrug. It is commonly known to everyone that a shrug means "I don't know" or "What does it matter".
Another example would be the thumbs up sign. It means "Very good" or "All right".
However, we cannot be overconfident and jump to comclusions straight away. Sometimes emblems can be done deliberately to trick the victim. How can we differentiate between the two? There are two ways to do so:
​1. Only a fragment of the emblem is performed.
2. It is performed out of the usual presentation position
Emblems
These are very obvious sign languages that can clearly tell us what a person is thinking thus allowing us to identify as clues of deceit.
Illustrators
Illustrators are body gestures that illustrates the speech as it is spoken.
This can come in many ways:
1. The flow of thought can be traced in the air
2. The hands can draw a picture in space to amplify what is being said
Although this usually only invloves the hands, but sometimes it also includes the facial exoression or even the whole body.
To find clues of deceit through illustrators, we must look out for a decrease in number of illustrators shown in the liar.This is because illustrators are used to emphasis on points and even explain ideas that are difficult to put into words. Illustrators decrease when a person is having trouble deciding what exactly to say.
This is why usually if a liar is not prepared enough or failed to anticipate what is to be asked, he will show a decrease in illustrators. Even if the liar is well prepared, there is also a high chance that there will be less illustrators due to the interference of the liar's emotions.
Autonomic Nervous System Clues
When a liar feels afraid, angry, excited, distressed, guilty etc. there will be rapid breathing, heavy breathing which are examples of autonomic nervous system changes.
Although these changes are usually measured using tools by professional lie catchers,however it can still be spotted just through the naked eye as long as we are a little more alert and observant. This is why it is important that we pay attention to other’s body language when they are speaking!
Autonomic Nervous System Clues is a body system that also processes emotional arousals and presents some noticeable changes in the body.
This includes a change of breathing patterns, frequency of swallowing and in the amount of sweating. These changes occur voluntarily which is why it is a reliable source of clues to deceit
