- Maintain temporal consistency in their story
- Control their body language and expressions
This extra mental effort makes liars prone to inconsistencies, especially when asked questions that force them to recall sequences or details they hadn’t prepared.
The Two Key Questions
“Tell me exactly how it happened, step by step.”
- Truthful people generally remember events fluently and sequentially, even if they forget minor details.
- Liars often:
- Give overly vague answers, or too much irrelevant detail
- Avoid a clear chronology
- Hesitate unusually when reconstructing the story
- Asking for a step-by-step account increases cognitive load, revealing inconsistencies in timing or sequence.
“What happened just before and just after?”
- Lies tend to focus on the central event and ignore context.
- By examining what happened before and after, you can detect:
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- Contradictions
- Unusual gaps or changes in the story
- Hesitations that wouldn’t exist in genuine
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