In the latest in her series of FightWrite™ articles on Writer’s Digest, Carla Hoch offers advice on writing deception and how body language can reveal a liar.
Hoch discounts the common misconception that liars can be caught out by certain physical behaviors, like scratching your nose. “It might be more accurate to say that there are certain behaviors people display when they are uncomfortable,” she says. “It’s not so much that lies trigger specific gestures, it’s the emotions driving the lie that create the physical responses.” Lying is a flight instinct, as opposed to fighting. “The survival mode in our body has been activated, adrenaline has been released,” Hoch notes. “Adrenaline gives a rush of energy and sometimes, to assuage that rush, a person may shift in their seats.” On the other hand, maybe the person’s leg fell asleep.
Instead of assuming that certain gestures are related to lying, Hoch suggests viewing them through the lens of discomfort, which may be emotional or physical, may not be related to lying at all, and may be a regular behavior. “Whenever anyone is called in for a police interview to be questioned, the first thing the interviewers do is simply chat with the person and watch them talk. The interviewers do this to get an idea of what is normal behavior for that person,” Hoch writes. “They must know what is normal in order to make note of what is not.” Writers should do the same for their characters, so that the reader understands their normal, baseline behavior.
When your character deviates from that baseline, your reader knows something is up, whether it’s emotional upset, physical discomfort, or even something positive. Hoch suggests a few “tells”:
- Anchoring. “When your character needs to feel solid and safe in a situation where they feel unsteady and vulnerable, they may anchor any part of their body to something firm,” Hoch says. “They may grip a chair firmly with their hands or entangle their feet behind chair legs.”
- Eye contact. We’re told that liars avoid eye contact, so liars may overcompensate to maintain it.
- Incongruent gestures. A person who says yes but shakes their head may be demonstrating a conflict between what they’re thinking and what they’ve said.
- Fidgeting. Putting your hands in your pockets could be a sign of comfort or a flight response. A character might sit on their hands or hide them under a table. A tapping foot or bouncing knee can be a sign of discomfort.
