BODY LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

year, and meanwhile I'll do everything I can to untangle the

mess-

Later, reporting to his supervisor, Nelson said, "I don't think

we should give them the time they asked for. I think we should

move in right now. I really think Tremont's investment policies

are pure gambles!"

His supervisor frowned. "You think he was lying to you?"

"Absolutely." Nelson hesitated. "Though, to tell you the truth,

I don't know why. I can't put my finger on anything he said. He

looked me straight in the eye, but..." He shook his head. "Maybe

I'm wrong. Maybe you should meet with him."

"Me? If you thought he was hiding something, why should I

feel any different?"

"I don't know. It was just a gut feeling, but I don't trust him!"

There is no sure way to catch a liar. No single facial expression,

no gesture, no element of body language sends out the subtext

"I am lying."

If this is so, why was Jim so certain the other man was lying?

That "gut feeling" he had was more than intuition. It was a combina-

tion of tiny clues to O'Brian's emotions. While there are no definite

expressions or gestures that spell out a lie, there are many physical

reactions that spell out our emotions. Here are some of them:

blushing, sweating, growing pale, or muscle tension.

THE LIE DETECTOR

In our society we like to depend on machines, and to catch a
liar, business and the government have turned to the polygraph.
We think of the polygraph as a lie detector, a mechanical apparatus
somehow senses when a person is lying. Many businesses