9 Scientific Ways To Tell When Someone Is Lying

4. They'll Oversimplify

Constructing a fictional world in which it is definitely not your fault that the car has a big dent in it, is actually pretty difficult, so a lie will often be much simpler than the truth.

The good thing about the truth is that the details are already there in order to be recalled. When you're telling a lie, these details have to be invented, which is much harder work for the brain, and so the first instinct we have is to keep it simple.

This not only requires less initial work, but allows the liar to keep on top of the details and avoid being tripped up.

It is also thought that liars will use fewer "exclusive words". These are words such as "except", "without" and "but" that indicate that indicate details that have to be considered andthen excluded. To include irrelevant information in a lie makes it too complex.

Another slightly counter-intuitive marker will be if somebody is sticking to their story a bit too faithfully. Contrary to popular belief, the stories of truth-tellers are more likely to vary from telling to telling as different details are recalled or discarded. However, a liar will have rehearsed their story almost down to the word and will be unlikely to deviate from the party line.