Recruitment: check body language to identify if a candidate is lying to you
Despite it is difficult to discover if a candidate is being honest in an interview, body language provides signals that can lead the recruiter to unmask the liar.
Dr. Lillian Glass, a behavioral analyst, worked for the FBI to unmask body language signals of deception. In her book “The Body Language of Liars” describes the following signals.
• Sudden head movement
If the candidate moves suddenly the head after you ask a question, you may hear a lie. The head will be retracted, bowed down or crocked before the answer.
• Aggressive behaviour: pointing
Candidates who tend to lie are very aggressive. This is a way to make their speech more credible, to show that they are sure about what they say. A visual effect of this aggressive behaviour is pointing.
• Deep breathing
A lie detector tries to detect significant changes in person’s heart rate. When lying, a person increases the blood flow and as a consequence the breathing rate. A way to detect this is to see if the candidate breathes deeply.
• Covering up parts of the body
When a liar gets a question that can hit a nerve, the person would cover parts of his/her body. These parts are head, chest, abdomen or throat.
• Hand on the mouth
A hand on the mouth shows that the candidate doesn’t want to communicate or it is reluctant. This may be because the question makes the person feel uncomfortable.
• Constant blinking
Another fact to take in account in an interview is blinking. Liars try to stare directly into the recruiters eyes to make him/her believe their story. However, this staring leads to a constant blinking.
• Shuffling feet
A clear sign that someone is lying is when that person shuffles their feet. This sign demonstrates that the person is uncomfortable and wants to leave the situation.
Source: hrmorning.com