Lie Detection

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, that is, talking without saying a word. On the other hand, non-verbal communication includes body movements, posture, gestures, facial expressions and eye movements. According to the social anthropologist, Edward T. Hall, in a normal conversation between two parties, he discovered that approximately 35% of interactions is actually expressed through words, while 65% of it is conveyed through body language. In modern society, more and more liars exist. According to James Patterson, the writer of The Day America Told the Truth, discovered that 91% among the two thousand Americans that he interviewed lies regularly both work and home. Based on research by Robert Feldman, in any given conversation, an average of two to three lies occurs every ten minutes. So, why do people lie? It is because they want to avoid punishment, protect themselves, look good and gain socially. Therefore, by understanding body language, individuals able to know attitude, feelings, and emotion of a person.

Gestures are the most reliable clue to detect lies because many liars could not control over them since they are used to it during childhood. Firstly these gestures will become a habit, and as time goes by, it will slowly become natural response to the liars. Hence, gestures can be considered as one of the most important things to the liars. Mouth covering gesture is one of the most common lying gestures. For example, covering mouth using hands is an immediate reaction to individual who lies. Another lying gesture will be nose-touching. Based on the extensive analysis of Bill Clinton’s testimony by American neurologist Alan Hirsch and psychiatrist Charles Wolf, they noticed before Bill Clinton answering question, he gave a split-second frown and showed nose touching gesture for a grand total of 26 times once every four minutes. However, when Bill Clinton is trying his best to clarify and explain to the grand jury that he does not have