Many of us lie. Some lie every day, and some never lie.
75 per cent of people tell zero to two lies every day. Only 1 per cent almost never lied, according to Science Illustrated (link in Norwegian).
But can we tell if someone is lying?
You might assume that a person who is lying would appear nervous and uncertain, but that’s not actually the case.
“For example, if you’re sitting on the bus and there’s a ticket inspection, you get nervous even if you have a ticket,” Tim Brennen tells sciencenorway.no.
Because people are so anxious about being caught in a lie, they often focus on not appearing nervous.
“Most people think they have more of these nervous movements when they lie. But it turns out that the number of nervous movements actually decreases,” Samantha Mann said in a 2014 article on forskning.no (link in Norwegian).
There are several reasons for this.
Since lying requires a lot of mental effort, we expend less energy on our body language.
Even if you feel nervous while lying, it will not be evident in your body language.
