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LIE DETECTORS AND LIE DETECTION

Lie detector tests measure the emotion of fear. If you hesitate breathing or take a breath, have sweaty palms or fail to do about 35 different things that you would normally do when telling the truth in day to day situations, each individual "abnormal" reaction to questions may be used to indicate you may be lying.

If your body movements, even eye movement, occurs totally out of context with "normal" behavior when you respond to a particular question then these can also be measured as if you may be giving false answers to questions. Shaking your head "no" while verbally answering a question "yes" may indicate you are lying. Blinking your eyes abnormally may indicate you are lying.

None of these things taken individually are absolute proof you are lying but when taken together with every other measurement of the test may add up to clues indicative of lying. Swallowing frequently during questioning may even be suspect that you are not being truthful.

In fact, your best , most convincing, most "natural" liars are said to be great storytellers, for example, like salespeople, actors, CEO's and, of course, lawyers and politicians! Remember, no one knows how to re-establish "trust" once you are caught lying and most liars simply do not consider the repercussions of their lying actions before they proceed to lie about something.

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: CBS-TV 48 HOURS 5/29/97

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