The language of lying — Noah Zandan

On a psychological level, we lie in part to paint a better picture of ourselves. We connect our fantasies to the person we wish we were.

Our conscious mind only controls about 5% of our cognitive function. The other 95% is beyond our awareness. While our brain is dreaming about who we wish we were, it's letting signals slip by.

Studies suggest lying about a personal topic takes hard work. It results in a different language pattern.

Linguistic text analysis identifies four common patterns in the subconscious language of deception:

1. Liars refer less to themselves when they are untruthful.  They talk more about others often using the third person to distance themselves from the lie.
2. Liars tend to be more negative because they feel guilty about lying on a subconscious level.
3. Liars typically explain events in simple terms as the mind struggle to build a complex lie.
4. Liars insert irrelevant but factual sounding details.

• Minimal self-reference: "Absolutely no party took place at this house" instead of "I didn't host a party here."
• Negative language: "Sorry, my stupid phone battery died. I hate that thing."
• Simple explanations: A US President once famously insisted, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
• Convoluted phrasing: "I can say, categorically, that this investigation indicates that no one on the White House staff, no one in this administration presently employed was involved in this very bizarre incident."