Customer Reviews

How To Spot A Liar: Why People Don't Tell The Truth and How You Can Catch Them

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is, as the other reviewers comment - about interrogation techniques. If you're looking for a book about how to tell that other people are lying to you - I suggest this won't have a lot of value. Other texts - such as Never Be Lied to Again - will give you better techniques for detecting liars. The shortcoming of this book is that the author looks at the world through the eyes of an interrogator - but the everyday world isn't an interrogation room. Hence, many of his techniques have shortcomings. I also found many of his examples to appear more hypothetical than real - in other words - made up to show a point. All this being said - it is a useful text on interrogation - and perhaps its best use is to give you the insights that someone is trying to use these techniques on you. Once you know that, they can be dealt with and neutralized fairly easily - because most of the people that use them are amateurs. A point to remember is that in order to be manipulated - you have to be a willing victim.

Former U.S. Army interrogator Gregory Hartley and writer Maryann Karinch collaborated on this intriguing book about the use of military interrogation techniques in personal, business and even combat situations. While this is an unusual topic, Hartley shares the details of his first-hand military experience, so his stories and examples carry extra weight. His presentation about why people lie or conceal information addresses an unusual aspect of the human psyche and human motivations. He discusses the physiological and psychological aspects of lying and then discloses some methods that military experts use to conduct serious questioning. Sometimes, readers may find it difficult to detect the business or social applicability of some of the military interrogation techniques (although you may be tempted to question your teenager in a temperature-controlled environment), but the book is quite useful when it goes beyond military or criminal justice situations and gets down to business. Hartley and Karinch explain how to observe and interpret body language, conduct more productive arguments, and improve your personal and business relationships. Even though the text is sometimes repetitive, we recommend this book to managers, interviewers, job seekers, couples and anyone interested in self-help or psychology. The best advice the authors provide is straightforward: just tell the truth. It makes life so much simpler.

Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch have collaborated on an interesting and informative book - which draws on Mr. Hartley's experience as an interrogator. The reader learns the behavioral clues that are discernible when a person is not telling the truth, and finds out how body language exposes the "liar." I expected this to be another "pop" psychology puff piece, but found that the author's facts and real world experience make it hard hitting and very credible. This book is helpful for virtually anyone - a parent, teacher, friend, employer, employee, sales clerk and anyone else - who has contact with children and adults, who in some situations might benefit by lying.

This book is a great resource for anyone learning how to better understand people - in any situation. Particularly useful are the subjects of baselining and the detailed description of how to watch for physical inconsistencies. Greg has done a good job of helping the common person understand how powerful body language can be on both sides of an interaction. With practice, the tactics in this book can help anyone sincerely interested in understanding people do so more effectively.

As a psychiatrist, interviewing techniques are essential. Awareness of "changes" in posture, facial expression, voice tone, limb movement, and speech from "baseline" are extremely important in identifying areas of a person's life where treatment is needed. This book is very helpful.

Although this book is appropriately focused on identifying persons who have committed crimes or "wrongs," the same techniques can be used to become more sensitive to others in order to be a helpful friend, family member, spouse or lover.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be a better listener and helpful human being.

Mr. Hartley's book is a eye opening journey in how to find out what another person is communicating through non verbal cues.

Whether you are intrested in building your effectiveness as a communicator, or knowing whether someone is being less than truthful with you, this is a great source of the skill sets that you need.

I found that it not only gave insight on how and why business prospects behave, but also gave insight to my non verbal behavours.

A must read for anyone who earns their living interacting with the public.

This is the best book on the subject of reading people, I have ever read. The techniques developed to interrogate prisoners have direct application in conducting interviews and/or high level contract negotiations.

My only negative comment would be the layout could be improved. The author jumps between individual topics within the same general subject.

I would highly recommend the work to anyone involved in negotiations.

DMR

Outstanding and accessible lessons drawn from a very complex field of human study. Greg Hartley selectively distills wisdom learned from years of real-world experience and presents a set of tools that can be effectively used in everyday life.

This book is insightful, revealing and surprising. It will even have you thinking about your own motivations for saying and acting the way you do!

The information in this book is very interesting, but its hard to apply it to your own life, even in the sections committed to every day occurrences. It seemed to jump back and forth and each chapter seemed to reference another. This book would be great after a few reads to get a feel for the techniques described.

Wow!!! This is the best book in the world!!! Read this and you can reek revenge on all the liars of the world by pointing them out! What can I say?! I am telling a lie! Mr. Hartley and Ms. Karinch's book is interesting but I wanted something more. One thing I found helpful was one can get to the truth by moving the person out of their "Cognitive" or more developed mind to their more primative minds through questioning and making them nervous. In short, the person is moved through various methods from their more cognitive to the mammal and lizard brains. When this is done it is much easier to see the truth. The section on NLP is not very helpful. You would have to accept i.e. believe in new age or non scientific methods for this section to be of help. Just be warned that NLP is not recognized universally as being a valid form of interpreting truth or lies. I also am left with the feeling that Mr. Hartley's methods work when used by military personal in a intimadating setting but are highly questionable when used in the daily grind/work world. Try using some of these techniques in the real world and unless you really know what you are doing, well, to be honest, people will get pretty pissed off at you! One might also be threatened with law suits or be informed by your boss or local power at be that various written compliants to various authorities have been filed with your name on them! In short, this book raises questions that may move a person to look further into the subject of liar identification. Or...they may simply toss it on their bed stand or desk and say to themselves, "Gee, I wished I bought that book on Bass fishing instead!"