Clues To Catch A Liar

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Would you be able to tell if somebody was lying to you? Liars often give off different signals, and according to experts, it is possible to detect their deception.

"Everyone lies, whether it's a small lie or a big lie, a lot of people will lie," said polygraph expert Timothy Acosta.

Years of research into human nature have shown that some people lie as often as twenty-five times a day, and many people don't even realize that the wool is being pulled over their eyes.

"There have been a lot of academic studies that show a lot of deceptive people run away from commitment in their stories," said interrogation expert Wesley Clark explained.

One big clue that a person is lying is if they remove themselves from the story.

"So instead of saying 'I' went here, all of a sudden 'woke up', 'went to work', the pronoun 'I' disappears," he said.

Liars may also use phrases that indicate that they are not telling the whole truth.

"Like if you ask your son, tell me about your night last night, 'oh, we went here and here, that's about it', ending with 'that's about it' literally means there's more information there," he said.

Too much information can also be an indication of a lie.

"Somebody who says 'I would never take that money, I'm not that type of person, I've been working here for seven years,' but they never say they didn't do it," Clark explained.

Experts say that everybody has a 'tell' that gives away their lies, and it can often be a shift in behavior.

"When they are uncomfortable, they will twitch, they will move, they will blink a certain way or look a certain way, those are all things that will take place when a person is lying," Acosta said.

Acosta is a former NYPD detective and said that in addition to the 'tell', simple intuition is a great way to detect a liar.

"Intuition is the first thing that tips people off, if you feel something is going on, chances are it is," he said.