There are many signals of deception and manipulation — and in the vast majority of scenarios, these should not be interpreted in isolation.
It’s profoundly important to differentiate a person who is lying or manipulative *in this moment* vs. a person who *chronically* lies or manipulates (that is, it’s one of their fundamental underlying personality characteristics).
The most common signal of a person who is a chronic liar (aka a person who is chronically insincere), is an overuse of their forehead muscles, specifically an upward (not downward) contraction of their forehead.
Moreover, either the entire width of the forehead (with both entire eyebrows) — or the central forehead (with the central portion of each eyebrow) elevating is the specific pattern to look for when sussing out chronic dishonesty and manipulative personalities.
Of course, there are many honest reasons for a person to elevate their forehead such as honest surprise, deep emotional processing, fear, bewilderment, honest emphasis, self-deprecating emotions, playfulness, etc.
These honest reasons are in profound distinction, however, to a person who elevates their forehead out-of-context or too frequently.
Another important distinction is when the forehead is contracted only on one side — which also does not apply in this specific chronic dishonest and manipulative nonverbal behavior/tell.
SUMMARY: The most common signal of a Manipulative personality as well as a Chronic Liar is the overuse of an upward-contracted forehead. Take care to avoid these individuals — they will make your life miserable (or worse).
All individuals, businesses, or organizations who want to (need to) dramatically improve their #BodyLanguage skills (via group or individual instruction) — and all professionals who want to nuance their understanding of #EmotionalIntelligence, please DM or email me at Jack@BodyLanguageSuccess.com
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This post and others accompanying it, serve as a reference source for the art and science of Body Language/Nonverbal Communication. The views and opinions expressed on this website are those of the author. In an effort to be both practical and academic, many examples from/of varied cultures, politicians, professional athletes, legal cases, public figures, etc., are cited in order to teach and illustrate both the interpretation of others’ body language as well as the projection of one’s own nonverbal skills in many different contexts.
