BODY LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS by Adrian Furnham & Evgeniya Petrova

Author:Adrian Furnham & Evgeniya Petrova
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

We know that people prefer, and are better at, concealment rather than falsification. It is easier to forget than to distort the truth. Falsification means “making up” things that are not true. It is self-evidently much easier to say things did not happen at all rather than to invent a “new story”. It is also true that people do have more problems lying aboutemotions–particularlypowerfulemotionssuchasterror, rage,fear and despair. Recounting a story of events fifty years ago, some people cannot suppress their emotions, which manifest in their tears and trembling voice. The more ego-involving the activity, the more likely it is that people in all walks of life will have difficulty in disguising the truth.

Regular and sophisticated liars have found the best mask, or cover, for their lie is the smile. Smiling has numerous advantages: it is an easy and natural expression to make voluntarily; it is polite; but, most importantly, it conceals opposite emotions (dread, fear, anxiety).

Liars tend to be most careful, thoughtful and involved in their choice and use of words. They can rehearse, practice and become word perfect. They are also very conscious of their facial expressions during the lying episodes. But it is the voice and body that perhaps give most away, and therefore the cues to watch to catch both the naïve and the sophisticated. People are betrayed by their words if they are careless, if they make a (Freudian) slip of the tongue, or an emotional tirade when the words pour, rather than slip, out. We also know that there are various vocal indexes of deceit relating to lying pauses, hesitations and tone and pitch of voice.

Finally, there are a number of important, subtle body indexes of deceit, including gestures, emblems, illustrations and manipulations. Emblems are well-known gestures with precise meanings: illustrations are movements that accentuate speech: manipulations are movements like grooming, massaging, rubbing, holding, pinching, picking, scratching. The autonomic nervous system changes with emotional arousal. Certain body changes occur – sweating, blushing, pupil dilation, breathing pattern, frequency of swallowing, all of which are difficult to inhibit. These changes are the basis of the lie detector/polygraph, as we saw in a previous chapter.

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