178 Part III: The Trunk: Limbs and Roots
Letting the feet do the talking
Research by Paul Ekman and William Friesen on
deception behaviours, shows that when a
person lies he produces more ruse signals in
the lower part of his body than in the upper part.
Because people are more aware of what their
hands and eyes are doing they can consciously
control their actions. Although the legs and feet
are also under conscious control, they are
mostly ignored and often out of sight. They are
therefore a more accurate source of informa-
tion. Videotaped recordings of people lyingwere shown to other people who were asked to
determine if the people on the tape were lying,
or telling the truth. The evaluators answered
more correctly when they were able to see the
lower part of the body. The findings showed that
liars pay more attention to what their hands,
arms, and faces are doing because they know
that that’s where people look. Because their
lower extremities are out of the way, liars forget
about them and are betrayed by miniature
muscle movements in their legs and feet.