--- description: Make sure to pay attention to speech, posture, and facial expressions. title: A Harvard Psychologist Explains the Key to Spotting a Liar image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8581dd4fb0b8aa/69887e3f196cf411e903a649/liarliar.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [motto](/tag/motto/) ## motto Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Harvard Psychologist Explains the Key to Spotting a Liar by [Jenna Goudreau / Business Insider](/author/business-insider/) ## Jenna Goudreau / Business Insider Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2016 3:23 PM CUT  by [Jenna Goudreau / Business Insider](/author/business-insider/) ## Jenna Goudreau / Business Insider Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2016 3:23 PM CUT You may think that fidgeting and not making eye contact are telltale signs that someone’s lying to you. But according to Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy, there is no one nonverbal cue that’s a dead giveaway. In her new book “[Presence](http://www.amazon.com/Presence-Bringing-Boldest-Biggest-Challenges/dp/0316256579?tag=bisafetynet-20 "undefined"),” the psychologist says that instead of looking for one big “reveal,” the best way to spot deception is to look for discrepancies across multiple channels of communication, including facial expressions, posture, and speech. “Lying is hard work,” Cuddy says. “We’re telling one story while suppressing another, and if that’s not complicated enough, most of us are experiencing psychological guilt about doing this, which we’re also trying suppress. We just don’t have the brainpower to manage it all without letting something go — without ‘leaking.'” **_Business Insider:_** [_A Harvard Psychologist Says These Simple Body-Language Tweaks Can Instantly Boost Your Confidence_](http://www.businessinsider.com/amy-cuddy-power-posing-boosts-your-confidence-2015-12 "undefined") The best way to catch these “leaks” is to look for differences between what people are saying and what they are doing, she says. Conflicting emotions, like a happy tone of voice paired with an agitated facial expression, can be particularly telling. Unfortunately, people are generally pretty bad at spotting lies. They successfully identify lies only slightly better than someone simply guessing, Cuddy says. The problem is most of us focus too much on the content of what people are saying, and not enough on their actions and the alignment between the two. **_Business Insider:_** [_FBI Agent: 8 Clues to Tell If Someone is a Liar_](http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-agent-on-clues-that-youre-a-liar-2016-1 "undefined") She cites a study by Harvard psychologist Nancy Etcoff that found that people with a language-processing disorder were significantly better at spotting liars than those without the disorder, likely because they were not distracted by the words being said. “When we’re consciously looking for signs of deception or truth, we pay too much attention to words and not enough to the nonverbal gestalt of what’s going on,” Cuddy says. “Truth reveals itself more clearly through actions than it does through our words.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.businessinsider.com/a-harvard-psychologist-explains-the-key-to-spotting-a-liar-2016-1 "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_BusinessInsider.com_](http://www.businessinsider.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/"},"headline":"A Harvard Psychologist Explains the Key to Spotting a Liar","datePublished":"2016-02-19T15:23:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:01:52.713Z","description":"Pay attention to facial expression and posture","url":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8581dd4fb0b8aa/69887e3f196cf411e903a649/liarliar.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jenna Goudreau / Business Insider"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8581dd4fb0b8aa/69887e3f196cf411e903a649/liarliar.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"liarliar","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/","name":"A Harvard Psychologist Explains the Key to Spotting a Liar"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Stay Mentally Strong When You Think You're About to Crack","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QLgnQEN9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-27T15:44:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QLgnQEN9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/","duration":"PT39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4228269/key-spotting-a-liar-harvard/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```