PEOPLE SKILL

By Vahid A.Nezhad

PPLSKILL #7 Spot Lying 🔦

#8・ Aug 8, 2021

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PPLSKILL #7 Spot Lying 🔦

By Vahid A.Nezhad • Issue #8 • View online

All of us lie. Real lies have a malicious intent and serious consequences, while white lies, with their kindly and positive intentions, are less likely to have significant consequences. This issue focuses on spotting lying and some tips that can be helpful on the job.

📖 WEASEL WORDS AND LAWYER LANGUAGE

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky -Getty Image

We impose strong social sanctions on liars. If you get caught in a serious lie, you may lose a friend. You may get punched in the nose. You may get sued in a court of law. Perhaps worst of all, your duplicity may become the subject of gossip among your friends and acquaintances. You may find yourself no longer a trusted partner in friendship, love, or business.

With all of these potential penalties, it’s often better to mislead without lying outright. This is called paltering. If I deliberately lead you to draw the wrong conclusions by saying things that are technically not untrue, I am paltering. Perhaps the classic example in recent history is Bill Clinton’s famous claim to Jim Lehrer on Newshour that “there is no sexual relationship [with Monica Lewinsky].” When further details came to light, Clinton’s defense was that his statement was true: He used the present-tense verb “is,” indicating no ongoing relationship. Sure, there had been one, but his original statement hadn’t addressed that issue one way or the other.

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin D. West

📝 Article

An FBI Agent's 8 Ways to Spot a Liar

LaRae Quy, who worked for the FBI for 23 years as a counterintelligence agent, now spends her time writing, speaking, and teaching others. She gives us some tips about spotting lies in the article:

Build rapport: Experience shows that “good cop” typically gets better results than “bad cop.”
Surprise them: Ask them something they don’t expect, and they’ll stumble.
Pay attention to how they say “No.”: “No” is a keyword to observe if you suspect someone is trying to mislead you.
Watch for changes in behavior: A subtle change in a person’s deportment can be a strong sign of deception.
Ask for the story backward.
Beware of too many compliments.
Ask follow up questions.

Read more here

🍿 Video

The language of lying — Noah Zandan

The technology known as “linguistic text analysis” enables us to identify the 4 common subconscious patterns of deception:

Minimal Self-reference: Refer to themselves less and always try to dissociate from the subject when lying.
Negative Language: They are feeling guilty subconsciously because of their lies so use negative phrases.
Simple Explanation: They explain the event in simple terms since their mind tries to build a complex lie.
Convoluted Phrasing: To pad a lie, they insert irrelevant words that sound factual.

See video here

🔬 Data

The Biggest Resume Lies to Avoid

In the Monster Future of Work: 2021 Outlook survey, 66% of employers agreed that candidates exaggerate skills and abilities; this is how they stretch the truth about themselves:

60% said had mastery in skills they had basic knowledge of
50% said worked at some jobs longer in order to omit an employer
45% gave a false reason for leaving a job
42.25% made up relevant experiences
41.25% used a director title when the actual title was a manager
39.25% claimed they had a degree from a prestigious university instead of their own

3 Most Common Resume Lies Job Seekers Tell

Education embellishments
Date deception
Skill stretching

How You Can Get Caught Lying on Your Resume

Skills assessments
Social media research
Background checks

Read research here

🎙️ Podcast

Work Smart Live Smart with Beverly Beuermann-King - EP 1019 – Stretching The Truth

Liar, liar, pants on fire. Have you ever told a lie? Even a little white lie? Is it ever okay to lie? Do you think that stretching the truth is lying? Or is lying by omission lying? Have you ever lied about your spending habits or about an illness to a boss so that you could take an extra vacation day? Is there such a thing as an acceptable lie? Research out of the University of California suggests that people tell an average of two lies a day. A survey conducted in the UK estimated that parents will tell children approximately 3,000 lies throughout their childhood and a US poll reported that 31% of moms said that they lied more often since having kids. So is it possible to always tell the truth? Probably not as sometimes we lie to protect the feelings of another or to prevent issues from arising.

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By Vahid A.Nezhad

Soft Skills advices and techniques from the most trusted authors and content creators to empower your career; for employees, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.

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