Wait for it… No, literally. Pauses can mean more than you think. In a study led by Jeffrey Walczyk and Kevin T. Mahoney in the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences department at Louisiana Tech University, researchers examined hesitation in truthful and deceptive answers. Their results found that, “The time lapse between the presentation of a question and the answer was usually greater when lying.” This is no small coincidence. Think about it. When someone asks you about your favorite band or a lifelong family story, you can usually bounce back the facts without a second thought. Lying, on the other hand, causes us to make up some backstory which overrides our longstanding memory. In other words, coming up with a story on a first date about an unrealistic, “perfect” work life would take a lot more time to process than spitting out well-rehearsed rants about a cringe-worthy boss. If they’re pausing, they’re probably doing a bit more than thinking of a truthfully eloquent
Wait for it… No, literally. Pauses can mean more than you think. In a study led by Jeffrey Walczyk and Kevin T. Mahoney in the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences department at Louisiana Tech University, researchers examined hesitation in truthful and deceptive answers. Their results found that, “The time lapse between the presentation of a question and the answer was usually greater when lying.” This is no small coincidence. Think about it. When someone asks you about your favorite band or a lifelong family story, you can usually bounce back the facts without a second thought. Lying, on the other hand, causes us to make up some backstory which overrides our longstanding memory. In other words, coming up with a story on a first date about an unrealistic, “perfect” work life would take a lot more time to process than spitting out well-rehearsed rants about a cringe-worthy boss. If they’re pausing, they’re probably doing a bit more than thinking of a truthfully eloquent