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86 Deception at Work

It is very rare for a liar to make a commitment and carry the personal responsibility for not
answering questions.

Silence is an admission that there is no believable answer

Concealment and falsification

Both consciously and subconsciously, liars do not want to get caught in a barefaced lie for
which they have no plausible excuse. Thus, where you permit him to do so, the liar will conceal
the truth rather than falsify it (Table 4.1).

Table 4.1 Concealment and falsification

Concealment Falsification

He omits to mention important and usually He makes up facts, events and other things that did
incriminating information not take place

He does not have to remember what he has He has to be careful to make sure untrue details
already said and is therefore less likely to give a provided are not contradictory and to avoid
conflicting answer ‘Freudian slips’

If it is discovered that he did not volunteer the If the suspect is caught in a falsification, he may be
truth when asked, he can always say he had unable to provide a plausible excuse. There is no
forgotten the detail or misunderstood the excuse for a barefaced lie
question. There is usually a plausible excuse for
concealment High anxiety resulting in the surfacing of
repressed emotions through non-verbal and other
Low anxiety communication

This is the safe course, chosen by 99 per cent of Inexperienced liars and suspects under professional
all liars in 90 per cent of all cases questioning falsify rather than conceal

When you are in doubt over whether a person is telling the truth or not, press for more
detail and make him falsify. Pin down his explanation, listen carefully and get more and more
detail. In this way the liar’s confidence decreases, anxiety increases and his non-verbal and
verbal clues spiral out of control. You then confront him with these as part of the cunning
plan.

The devil is always in the detail

The clues

It does not matter how skilled the liar is, his conscious and unconscious objectives will always
leave clues to deception (Table 4.2).