Speed it up if you want to get away with telling lies

We all have a failing that gets us caught out if we tell lies – for some of us it’s that we blush to a point that cars stop because they think we’re a traffic light turned red; for others it’s the inability to keep a straight face – but what catches us out easiest of all is talking too slowly.

That’s because you don’t actual have to think about it when you’re telling the truth; there’s no need for recourse to your imagination, and you don’t have to worry about inconsistencies in your explanation – because there are none.

But if you’re making it up as you’re going along, you have to pause for more than breath – because it takes a little longer to conjure up an alternative reality.

Which explains a new study which has found that individuals who speak more rapidly are more likely to be perceived as honest.

And that presumably makes Dave Fanning the most truthful man around.

A 2015 study in the Netherlands looked at lying in volunteers aged six to 77. It found that children initially have difficulty formulating believable lies, but proficiency improves with age.

It judged that you hit your lying prime between the ages of 18 and 29 – but after about the age of 45, we begin to decline again. . . or so we’d have you believe, because maybe we’ve just got really, really good at it.

Of course, the best way to get away with telling a lie is the ability to make it seem like it’s true in the first place – so shout it loud enough and long enough and often enough, and eventually it becomes a reality.

You must feign real integrity to become a successful liar; say it like you actually believe it yourself and you’re halfway to getting away with it.

The researchers of this most recent piece of work, based at the University of East London, found that a slower rate of speech can mean that a talker is under a heavier cognitive load – in simpler language, because they are lying their brain must conjure up an alternative truth, which slows down how they express themselves.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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