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Behaviors such as an averted gaze, fidgeting, and stuttering are commonly thought of as signs of lying.
However, scientific evidence doesn't support that these nonverbal cues can prove someone is lying.
Instead, listen to verbal cues and magnify the differences between what liars and truth-tellers say.
Police thought that 17-year-old Marty Tankleff seemed too calm after finding his mother stabbed to death and his father mortally bludgeoned in the family's sprawling Long Island home. Authorities didn't believe his claims of innocence, and he spent 17 years in prison for the murders.
Yet in another case, detectives thought that 16-year-old Jeffrey Deskovic seemed too distraught and too eager to help detectives after his high school classmate was found strangled. He, too, was judged to be lying and served nearly 16 years for the crime.