I was watching True Romance last night, and there's a scene where
Christopher Walken interrogates Dennis Hopper, and Walken explains
that there are 17 signs of lying, and he uses them to tell when Hopper
is lying.

What are the 17 signs of lying?

---

Request for Question Clarification by weisstho-ga on 14 Jul 2002 17:54 PDT

Hi markabe!

When Coccotti (Walken) observes that men have seventeen "pantomimes"
(and women have twenty) he doesn't detail them; if fact, he doesn't
even give an example. See
http://www.screentalk.org/moviescripts/True%20Romance.pdf , page 25.

Now, there are numerous sources of both verbal and non-verbal clues
that someone is lying. If you would like those, let me know and I will
lay them out for you. There are more than the "seventeen" that Quentin
Tarantino mentions in his script.

Please just be apprised that there does not appear to be any
authoritative source for the exact seventeen Mr. Tarantino is
referring to.

---

Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 31 Jul 2002 00:16 PDT

It seems that Tarantino was full of crap after all. OK then, roll on,
numerous sources!

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to expound here a little bit!  

Tarrantino needed a good line just before he has Coccotti plug the
poor victim, and why not 17 pantomimes?  Now, all of these are suspect
. . . "I never slept with that woman!" without blinking an eye. Or
saying that "the sky is blue" and feeling uncomfortable for some
reason and crossing one's arms.

Nevertheless, for what they're worth . . . 

1.	Less finger pointing,  
2.	Lip licking,  
3.	Lip puckering/tightening of lips,  
4.	Increased drinking and swallowing,  
5.	Fewer hand gestures,  
6.	Hand-to-face grooming,  
7.	Sighs/deep breaths,  
8.	Hand and shoulder shrugs,  
9.	Handling objects,  
10.	Looking away to the side or down,  
11.	Touching nose,  
12.	Crossing arms,  
13.	Closing hands into fists. 
14.	Covering of ones mouth
15.	Stroking a mustache
16.	Scratching of the nose
17.	Twisting of the hair
18.	Scratching the face
19.	Lack of eye contact
20.	Crossing of the arms
21.	Adjusting clothing
22.	Using the hands to fiddle with objects
23.	Nervous tics and jitters 
24.	Speech that is too slow
25.	Speech that is too fast
26.	Frequent hesitations
27.	Lack of direct eye contact
28.	Qualifiers/modifiers: not necessarily, but, however, almost,
generally, basically.
29.	Denials of lying: frankly, obviously, to be 100% honest with you,
as far as I know.
30.	Speech errors: this is the old Freudian slip, changing your
thoughts and details mid-stream.
31.	Pause-fillers: filling empty spaces with um, er, ah, uh.  
32.	Stuttering: a liar gets tongue-tied, runs words together, stammers
and slurs his speech

There are no doubt other clues - curling one's toes?  

Thanks for posting a neat question!

weisstho-ga

Search Terms:

://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22nonverbal+clues%22+lying

I still think Tarantino's a jerk for making something up like that,
but it was a good answer.

This one has more than 17?

http://www.geocities.com/kikisdragon/Lying.html

-AI

this is a corroboration to the other list:

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSUNW000/8271/23580/263225.html?d=dmtContent

-AI

in those lists, the Nonverbal signs
of lying tally 16, maybe they invented
an extra? It is the movies ;-)

-AI

Lying by politicians #109:
Question- How do you know when a politician is lying? (alright you can
now insert the former CEO(s) of Enron, etc)
Answer: Their lips are moving.

Disclaimer: I have never been near, under, over, stayed at or in the
Watergate.

Those lists are interesting. Perhaps Dr. Hirsch should watch a film of
Albert Einstien talking on Relitivity or answering question, and many
other people who "think" and create for a living.

Consider the source and buyer beware on those lists. 

webadept-ga

I have 18. I received an e-mail some time back which mentioned the
following :

The verbal signs of lying include:
-Qualifiers/modifiers: not necessarily, but, however, almost,
generally, basically.
-Denials of lying: frankly, obviously, to be 100% honest with you, as
far as I know.
-Speech errors: this is the old Freudian slip, changing your thoughts
and details mid-stream.
-Pause-fillers: filling empty spaces with um, er, ah, uh. 
-Stuttering: a liar gets tongue-tied, runs words together, stammers
and slurs his speech

The nonverbal signs of lying include:
-Less finger pointing, 
-Lip licking, 
-Lip puckering/tightening of lips, 
-Increased drinking and swallowing, 
-Fewer hand gestures, 
-Hand-to-face grooming, 
-Sighs/deep breaths, 
-Hand and shoulder shrugs, 
-Handling objects, 
-Looking away to the side or down, 
-Touching nose, 
-Crossing arms, 
-Closing hands into fists.

An additional way to possibly tell that someone is lying is to watch
their eyes.  Most people will look in one direction when
reconstructing a memory (remembering) and another when creating a
memory (lying).  A study of NLP or Neurolingustic Programming explains
futher.

See http://www.dreamweb.ch/don/NLP.htm