5. Setting the scene

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• Black Book of Lie Detection

“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” - Abraham Lincoln

In addition to taking the steps outlined in the previous chapter, your lie detection efforts will be more successful if you apply the following rules each time you suspect someone of lying and want to establish the truth:

1. Where possible and practical, try to avoid alerting the person that you suspect them of lying. Innocent people become defensive when accused of lying and will exhibit stress signs through their nonverbal and vocal cues, which can be mistaken for lie cues.
   
   
2. Try to get your suspect to relax at the outset. Avoid going straight to the deception issue and try to encourage them to lower their guard.
   
   
3. Establishing rapport will cause your suspect to relax and trust you. Salespeople and other influence professionals understand the importance of establishing rapport and frequently use it in their communication. In short, you establish rapport by subtly matching the other person's body language, pace, pitch and tone of voice. Talk to them about something they are interested in and that you know something about.
   
   
4. Rapport is so effective because of a fundamental principle of human nature, which is that people like people like themselves. We easily fall into rapport with people we like and are close to. When people have rapport you will notice that they are sitting or standing in virtually identical positions. If you want to learn more about building rapport you may want to download The Black Book of Persuasion which covers this subject and many other effective persuasion and influence techniques.
   
   
5. Taking the above steps will make it easier for you to establish a baseline for the suspect's behavior i.e. how they normally behave when they are not undergoing questioning about an alleged deception. When you start to ask difficult, probing questions you will be able to more accurately measure and monitor behavioral changes.

Table of Contents

1. We all want to be lie detectors
2. Types of liars and degrees of lying
3. You need to be cautious
4. Factors influencing detection accuracy
5. Setting the scene
6. Your body wants to confess
7. Eye think you are lying to me
8. Time to face the truth
9. Listen like a lawyer
10. Download the PDF

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