How to Detect When People Lie?

Lie detection is a useful skill that can be used in everything from employee recruitment to personal relationships. Most of us have told lies at one time or another. Whether it is a white lie or to gain some advantage we as a human species are prone to such behaviors. Yet that doesn't mean we all engage in them. Most people simply don't because they have developed a strong confidence in themselves and their ability to get what they want without deception. However, lie detection can help protect us against those who are not so honest with their intentions.

Let us say you are conducting an interview and someone is lying about their skills, abilities, and background. If you hire this person you may find that you need to fire them in the future if they don't perform according to expectations. While most of us put forward a "good foot" most of us would not consider lying as an appropriate method for selected.

Situational Context and Logic:

Situational context and understanding is likely the key determinant of lie. Does the information make sense in the circumstances in which they exist? Is what they are saying logically consistent? In other words, "does it really make sense and is it plausible?"

Much of that depends on the person's lying abilities. If the person is a practiced liar they may think through all the possible scenarios and find that which is most make sense. However, they will often leave gaps in their explanations and have less verifiable details (Park, Levin, et. al, 2002).

The Word Test:

While it is not a perfect measure the use of more "um" in speech can be an indication that a person is telling the truth (Arciuli, Mallard & Villar, 2010). Contrary to popular opinion "um" doesn't mean that a person is stressing to find an answer. They may simply be thinking about details or even be trying to find their own truth to create an accurate answer.

The Cognitive Load Test:

When people are stressed and lying their immediate reactions are often to default quickly to the truth but only when there is no opportunity to think through plausible explanations. Let us say that they are currently working on a crisis and the speed of their thinking and activities will likely default in actions that are based on their understanding of events. In other words, they will act in their own best interest to solve problems based on their deeper understanding of events. Lies usually don't make their way into the equation until the crisis is over.

Self Interest and Self-Promotion:

People often lie to hide negative things about themselves, their intentions, or to promote themselves. Healthy people don't need to do this because they have internal beliefs that being a highly developed individual leads to benefits in the world. They rely on their own abilities and character. When trying to determine a lie think about that advantages and disadvantages a person receives from the information they are offering (Underwood, Kerlin & Farrington-Flint, 2011).

Another way to think of this is through their patterns of thought. Thinking is a habit. If a person is always talking about money or always talking about their abilities you can come to the conclusion that this is important to them. If what they say indicates that they say doesn't seem to match a quality value system you can be more sure through active listening that may be willing to deceive to obtain a goal.

Time is the Determinant of Lying:

Discovering patterns takes time. When you wait to make a final judgement you will eventually gain more information. Let them talk, let them explain things, and let them feel a false sense of security. You don't need to hand over valuable things or given them anything you don't want to. Just ask questions, be aware when you spend time with people, and let time determine the end result.

Some people are Better Lie Detectors:

People who are extroverts and open to experience, according to to the Big Five personality factors are able to both tell lies and detect lies (Elaad & Reizer, 2015). In the same study it was found that those who were conscientious also didn't lie as much and were not very good at detecting lies. Your personality can determine whether or not you are both a good liar and a lie detector.


Nahari, G., Vrij, A. & Fisher, R. (2014). Exploiting liars' verbal strategies by examining the verifiability of details. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 19 (2).

Park, H., et. al. (2002). How people really detect lies. Communication Monographs, 69 (2).

Reinhard, M., et. al. (2014). Detecting lies and truths in social work: how suspicion level and familiarity affect detection accuracy. British Journal of Social Work, 44 (2).

Reizer, A. (2015). Personality correlates of the self-assessed abilities to tell and detect lies, tell truths and believe others. Journal of Individual Differences, 36, (3).

Underwood, J., Kerlin, L. & Farrington-Flint, L. (2011). The lies we tell and what they say about us: Using behavioural characteristics to explain Facebook activity. Computers in Human Behavior, 27 (5).

Quality Brands of Local Businesses Increase Foreign Direct Investment

Areas known for quality are rewarded in the global market by future investment. Consumers responded to location of origin perceptions positively with increased purchases that led to increased economic growth in these areas.  A study of 30 source and 34 host countries between 2005 and 2006 found that an increase of 27% in foreign direct investment occurred as a result of a 1% increase in quality perception of intangibles (Kalamova & Konrad, 2010).

If governments want to improve their economic position by attracting new investments into the area they will need to move beyond thinking exclusively about price and into the perceptional quality of the products produced in their area and how that quality perception improves economies. Locations that are known for high quality products are rewarded through future investments that leads to additional tax revenue, jobs and other benefits as a result of an expanding local economy.

The knowledge-capital model helps understand that local production is often based in the skills that develop around industries. According to the study, the most relevant factors that encourage investment are perceptions of products, social and economic environments and culture. As areas became known positively for such attributes they improved their sales prospects.

One of the reasons why this happens is that consumers use heuristics when making decisions about whether or not to purchase particular products. Some locations are considered high quality producers while others are not and this can hamper them. Selection rates are likely to increase as consumers weigh and balance price and quality.

For business managers this makes quality perceptions an important part of the business plan. While quality and price should improve based on having the quality producers within the same area there is are additional benefits for actively promoting quality outputs.

Branding also leads to future investment as potential investors ponder where and how to invest within certain high growth markets that offer the highest potential for investment return. They will naturally select regions that have existing businesses successfully competing within the market because risks are lower. Improved investment portfolios come with the added advantage of economic growth and prosperity within the region. This investment also leads to robust innovation, production and cluster development.

Kalamova, M.& Konrad, K. (2010) National brands and foreign direct investment. Kyklos, 63 (3).

Life Expectancy Declines by 2 Years because of Opioid Addiction

Life expectancy declines 2 years based on Opioid overdose and addiction. The new information helps show how we should restrict such usage to those who need them but not over prescribe them for pain. People turning to alternative sources are becoming addicted.

The Spruce Offers a List of Online Adjunct Faculty Positions

Online teaching is a way of life and faculty are often looking for online adjunct teaching jobs. Often we become familiar with a few websites but skip out on many of the other great websites that give you opportunities. I came across this site and I think you would enjoy it as well. There are lots of online faculty jobs you may enjoy here.

https://www.thespruce.com/online-teaching-employment-resources-3542525

Are there really UFOs on our Planet from a Scientific Standpoint?

Are UFO's possible from a scientific standpoint? I'm not much of a UFO guy but I do enjoy the probabilities of science. An interesting video was released that seem to show something we don't quite understand. Is it a UFO? No one really knows because we were not able to capture it and take a closer look. From a scientific standpoint there is just something of interest and a very rough piece of evidence but without closer observation and detailed analysis one cannot rule out that it came from other sources. What if another country built it? What if some genius in his basement built an advanced drone but we are unaware? A multitude of questions have not been answered.

However, we can say for sure that alien life does exist in one form or another. We have seen these remnants on other planets and found them attached to our space stations.  Likely another reason why some governments are pushing for stronger space programs. Most of these discoveries are only about simple organisms and have not been fully studied. It is actual alien life but not the type that would get the average person very excited!

We also have the chance to discuss probability. If chance of life on another planet is one in a trillion then it is believed that advanced life has existed at least a billion times already.  Because the universe is estimated to be around 10 billion years old, not like anyone really knows no how many numbers we throw at it, then many of these existing civilizations may have already passed away. There just isn't any evidence or proof because we are limited in our space exploration abilities.

So is this video is proof?

Not really. It only opens the door to additional questions from a scientific standpoint. To know for sure would mean we would need to test and manipulate what we found. A grainy video only gives us a direction to look at but doesn't provide enough information to show anything conclusively other than there is something that can move quickly across the surface of the earth. Additional videos and observations would be needed to show additional information. Once that occurs, we would need to see one in real life and be able to "play with it" to determine precisely where the materials and technology came from.

Economic Investment and Growth Through Marketing and Brand Management

As the world changes and becomes more integrated American businesses will need to improve and adapt their marketing techniques in order to reach different peoples from different places with different backgrounds. Furthermore, such regions that brand their image will not only help raise their local businesses global reach but also encourage greater investment in their area.

While companies continue to seek out new marketing opportunities to expand their reach local governments don't often think on this level. The process of creating a brand relies on the ability of local governments to think like businesses with their product being its current infrastructure, peoples, and local businesses. As they learn to master marketing techniques they will find their areas attracting clusters of businesses.

Thriving localities want to be known international to have the draw that is needed to improve their economic growth. An investor seeking to put money into self-driving cars should immediately think of Detroit or an investor thinking of putting money into biotechnology should think of San Diego. The brand of an area has actual value on the market in the same way as it does for companies.

Brand and Growth: The brand of each area should be focused on those key ideas that lead to growth. For example, Silicon Valley and technology, San Diego and Biotechnology and Detroit and innovative automotive industries. Such brands attract new investments when these industries are vibrant.

International Marketing: We no longer live in a domestic world and advertising location branding as well as advertising of products/services should adapt to new market realities. There will need be more sophistication in reaching different peoples, cultures and places.

Macro Trending and Big Data: Marketing in multiple international locations also means that companies will need to crunch data. Sophistication of market analysis techniques and technology will grow to find both individual and large market trends that help companies improve their current marketing practices.

Online Marketing: Because international marketing is difficult, expensive and clunky in traditional formats online marketing will continue to grow to meet emerging growth in mobile technology and Internet access.

What is a Corporate Silo? How to Break Them?

Silos can limit cross-functional decision making and allow inefficiencies to creep in. Silos occur when departments don't communicate well with each other limiting their overall ability to function as a single business entity. The more barriers that are created, typically the more inefficient the business. At the core issue of silo creation is often the leadership team and their desire to create their own fiefdoms.

It is natural that as people rise in position they seek more control and additional opportunities to choose their own courses of actions. The department becomes an extension of its senior management. If the wrong tone and culture arises it can limit the interaction between the departments.

Limited information sharing leads to decisions within isolation. That means decisions won't be well thought out or take into consideration the skills, needs and abilities of other departments. The organization slowly looses its ability to compete against others that have more efficient operations and ability to share information and resources.

This is something that can be fixed but it takes some thoughtfulness by key leaders. Each company has their own unique challenges and will have to cater their turnaround efforts based on the uniqueness of the entity and the characteristics of their market.

1. Create cross-departmental teams: Teams from different departments will help ensure that core decisions such as product lines and general operations take into account other departments and the needs of the entire organization.

2. 360 Performance Appraisals: Cross department 360 performance appraisals for managers encourages them to work with other departments and be accountable to each other.

3. Total Management Compensation Packages: Part of key executive management should be based on how the entire company operates. Bonuses that are associated with the organizations health help them understand the need to take care of the entire organization.

4. Shake up the Core Team: Get rid of silo executives that refuse to work with others and find replacements that are more collaborative in nature.

5. Culture: Encourage and reward behaviors that work with others. Create an empowered egalitarian environment.

6. Revamp Processes: Revamp processes so that approvals of other departments that are impacted are needed. Make sure that processes make connections between departments.

7. Information Networks and Corporate Communication: Disseminate information to others and create communication networks based on cross-department needs.