<p>It is not entirely clear whether you are asking how much weight <em>should</em> we place on different cues (if we want to spot liars) or how much people actually <em>do</em> use these cues. There is a big literature on lie detection though. <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.9615&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf" rel="nofollow">Here</a> is a recent paper that discusses some of this work and will give you a start.</p>

<p>Some of the salient points are:</p>

<ul>
<li>People are actually pretty bad at guessing truths and lies, though it is hard to do experiments on.</li>
<li>Although there are some cues that give people away, these are faint and unreliable. The most reliable ones are actually just the things that they say (the facts).</li>
<li>Non-verbal cues and speech disturbances are actually pretty poor cues even though people think they are good ones. They are also pretty easy to fake.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-04T19:54:01.873Z
Also see [this paper](http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(16)30054-7).
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-04T12:35:05.580Z
2016-08-04T12:35:05.580Z
splint
<p>While spotting a liar,is it paying attention to verbal cues such as
<strong>pauses in speech and speech disturbances, including "ahs," stutters, and incomplete sentences</strong> that weighs more or
is it paying attention to non-verbal cues such as
<strong>inconsistent eye contact, increased degree of eye contact, blink frequency, chin movement</strong> that weighs more</p>

<social-psychology><behaviorism><deception>
While spoting a liar, whether observing the verbal cue or observing the non-verbal cue helps?
Vasudev gowda
# While spoting a liar, whether observing the verbal cue or observing the non-verbal cue helps?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-08-04)

While spotting a liar,is it paying attention to verbal cues such as
**pauses in speech and speech disturbances, including "ahs," stutters, and incomplete sentences** that weighs more or
is it paying attention to non-verbal cues such as
**inconsistent eye contact, increased degree of eye contact, blink frequency, chin movement** that weighs more

**Tags:** social-psychology, behaviorism, deception


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-08-04. Score: 3

It is not entirely clear whether you are asking how much weight *should* we place on different cues (if we want to spot liars) or how much people actually *do* use these cues. There is a big literature on lie detection though. [Here](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.9615&rep=rep1&type=pdf) is a recent paper that discusses some of this work and will give you a start.

Some of the salient points are:

* People are actually pretty bad at guessing truths and lies, though it is hard to do experiments on.
* Although there are some cues that give people away, these are faint and unreliable. The most reliable ones are actually just the things that they say (the facts).
* Non-verbal cues and speech disturbances are actually pretty poor cues even though people think they are good ones. They are also pretty easy to fake.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Also see [this paper](http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(16)30054-7).  

---

