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Certain human facial expressions are universal.

Can you name the six basic emotions showing on this man's face? (Answers below)

Name That Face.....

But what about deception? Is it true that there are tell-tale signs that reliably indicate lying? If so, which ones?

Yesterday I was getting my hair cut and colored (like Hillary, I may never go gray). I had the sense that my hairdresser of six months seemed a little bit ... off. She kept having me tuck my chin down rather than look at her eyes in the mirror while we chatted. She forgot a couple of things she normally remembers, like what side I part my hair on. There were other small things I couldn't quite put my finger that kept pinging me.

When she insisted on blow-drying my hair though I usually leave with it wet I knew something was definitely up. It turned out that it was greatly to her financial advantage to change over to a new line of color products, and she while she was pretty sure my color would turn out the same she didn't want to "freak me out" by telling me this up front. Only when it was clear it turned out ok did she let on. So, she lied to me to save me from worry. Do you agree with this approach? I personally would rather know what's going on up front, but then, I was lied to constantly growing up and tend to be suspicious about even the most well-meaning "I didn't want to upset you" little white lies. But I may be an 'outlier' here.

We enjoyed the show Lie to Me, based on the work of Dr Paul Ekman, who also explains the Eight Greatest Myths about Lying from my little quiz below.

True or False:

1) Everyone tells high-stakes serious lies if they know they can get away with it.

2) Everyone tells low-stakes polite social lies.

3) Women can spot lies better than men.

4) Looking up and to the left while speaking indicates lying.

5) Psychopaths are perfect liars.

6) Fleeting micro-expressions indicate covered-up lies.

7) Polygraphs are just slightly better than chance in detecting lies.

8) You can spot lies from how people behave.

Answers:

Detailed explanations of the answers can be found here.

The man's facial expressions from left to right:

Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise

1) False. Not everyone tells the kind of high-stakes lies that can get you divorced, jailed, or killed.

2) True. All the time! We do try not to hurt each other's feelings.

3) False. We all tend to overlook the truth so's not to be disappointed. We are willingly taken in, again and again.

4) False. Research has repeatedly proven this wrong, though reading eye movements  was a long-held tenet of NLP.

5) False. They're no better at lying than anyone else; they're just exceptionally good at charming us into believing them.

6) False. There are many things a fleeting and quickly covered-up expression could indicate besides guilt.

7) True.

8) True. Contradictory body language can be one of many give-aways. I particularly remember one speech where Richard Nixon said, "We must all come together" while simultaneously spreading his hands wide apart.