Wednesday

HOW TO CATCH A LIAR !

I was always fascinated by the depths of Cognitive Psychology as a means to know how we react to everyday emotional triggers around us. When dealing with people who are extremely close, it may hurt us beyond measure if they lie to us. If we can't stop others from lying, we can certainly help ourselves in detecting deception by a very simple technique. I recently came across an interesting way to catch people who lie by the little unknown clues that their body offer us. Definitely it is an exciting thing to know if the person in front of you is speaking the truth or otherwise, and the essence of this amazing technique is that anybody can master it!!!


Our brain is divided into two hemispheres, each of which control specific functions. It has been cognitively proved that our right side of brain controls the left side of our body, whereas the left side of brain manages the right part of the body. In Psychology, they call it "Lateralization of Brain Function." Normally for right handed people, the left hemisphere of brain manages language abilities,science, maths and logical thinking, or basically all that which requires already stored Memory. And interestingly, the right hemisphere manages Creativity, which may include your thinking, musical abilities, your intuition and ideas. And "lying" comes under the category of creativity, because a person has to naturally use his creative skills in order to lie, so that the person in front must have to be convinced that it is actually the truth. Our eyes has a natural tendency to look at that side of the brain which is actually in use. You would have several times observed a person's eyes moving to the top right or top left whenever he is trying to recollect and tell something to you. This is where you have to catch it!



If he looks at the side of his brain that manages creativity, you can deduce that he is creating a lie using all his creative prowess. But if he looks to the side which manages stored memory, you can deduce that he is actually trying to fetch information that is already true according to his knowledge, and would require his past memory and not his creative ability. Thus, he will invariably look to the side that handles stored memory. But now a question arises. How do we know which side of the person's brain manages what?

It can be easily known by trying a set of test questions on that person. You can ask some very easy questions to the person ranging from what he had eaten this morning or how old his father is. These set of questions will force the person to look at that side of his brain that manages the pre-stored memory. With proper examination on him, you can deduce the side of the brain that handles Memory by throwing such easy questions where there does not arise a need to lie. Then you can confirm that the very opposite side is the Creative side. This test has to be performed because memory and creative sides are different in different people's brains.

Now you know which side controls what. After this, whenever you ask something, you can very easily catch whether the person is trying to fetch information from his already established knowledge side of brain or his creative side. Thus, you can catch a lie if the eyes point to the creative side invariably while they reply!

The technique needs immense patience and analytical observations from your side, but it is really fun when you implement it on people. Eventhough there is a lot of Research Scope in this area, Cognitive Psychologists have reported to be using similar techniques prematurely when they speak to their patients, and by Criminal Investigators when the interrogate detainees in order to catch lies or signs of deception. If they can implement it successfully, then it is certainly worth a try in our daily lives as well! Such little psychological activities can certainly engage our minds, and amazingly can help us read a fraction of other's mind as well.