Up to one-third of workplace conversation involve some form of deception. Unsurprisingly, the most common work-place lie is faking a “sickie”.
Body language and facial expressions can give away signs that someone is lying, but this relies being able to see the person that you suspect is lying.
Lying online
Jeff Hancock, a professor of communication at Cornell University, analyses online conversations for signs of lying. His research could lead to the development of software that target online fraudsters.
Seven signs of online insincerity:
- Long messages: E-mails that mask a lie have, on average, 28% more words than truthful messages.
- Over embellishment: Liars try to give a believable story by providing more detail. State your case clearly and avoid clichés and jargon. Give the facts of a problem or situation in clear, direct English.
- ‘They’, ‘he’ and ‘she’: Liars are more likely to use third-person pronouns, to try to distance themselves from a lie.
- ‘Sad’, ‘angry’, ‘unhappy’ and ‘stressed out’: People also tend to use negative emotional terms because they feel uncomfortable about lying.
- ‘See’, ‘feel’ and ‘touch’: Liars overuse “sense terms” to try to build up detailed account of a scenario that may never have happened.
- Being deliberately vague: Liars dodge direct questions in an attempt to avoid being caught.
- "Honestly", "frankly" and "with all due respect": These expressions all mean the opposite!
Watch out!
Lying in your marketing or any situation where your client or boss keeps a written record is never worth it. More importantly lying is bad writing.
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I better keep this short and positive and avoid emotional words.
Nice post.
(Honestly)
Point 2 above has always been the killer for me.
Many clichés are barely a step away from weasel words. And while jargon is often deliberately used in a bullying way, it’s a great tool for dissembling or creating a smokescreen.
I agree inpenetrable business jargon is a great way of concealing the truth!
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