A recent US study shows people tend to be more dishonest if they’re not talking face to face. Use these signs to tell if that text you’ve just received is a truth or lie
Tell-tale Sign #1:
Pregnant Pauses
It takes 10 per cent longer to type a lie than the truth, according to a Brigham Young University study. Researchers observed that people who lie in texts, on Facebook, or over instant messaging take that much longer to compose their messages, make a lot more edits, and write shorter responses than usual.
Tell-tale Sign #2:
Indirect Statements
Rather than a direct reply, a person who’s lying may resort to giving indirect statements that imply an answer; for example, “Would I do such a thing?” or “I wouldn’t do such a thing”, rather than “I didn’t do it”. A sentence with a contraction is also more likely to be truthful: “I didn’t do it” instead of “I did not do it”.
Tell-tale Sign #3:
Negation
Liars tend to use words with negative emotions and have the habit of flipping their language around. For instance, they’ll likely say “not good” instead of “bad”, or “not happy” instead of “sad”.
Tell-tale Sign #4: Distancing Language
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University found that online liars are less likely to use the first-person pronoun “I” in their deceptive statements. The use of pronouns also changes: “My” becomes “the”, like “I knocked my mug off the table” becomes “The mug fell off the table”.
Related: More signs on digital deception
Related: How to tell if your partner is lying to you
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