4 ms·

Assuming they haven't had practice at suppressing nonverbal cues, anyway.

• j_baker 16y ago
  These cues can be suppressed, and most people do so naturally without any practice. The thing is that these cues happen unconsciously. They usually show up before the conscious intellect can suppress them. Let me give you an example. Oliver North was summoned to Congress to testify about the whole Iran Contra affair. I forget what the question was, but the important part was North's response. If you watch closely, you can see his lower lip extend below his upper lip for a split second: he pouted. He was upset by the question somehow, but didn't want to show it, so he quickly suppressed it. Apart from psychopaths, there are very few people (less than 1%) who can totally suppress these types of cues.
  • cdr 16y ago
    Maybe if you're taping someone you might be able to catch something, but it's very difficult in my experience to catch a tell from a practiced liar live - a part of one of my hobbies involves catching people lying, so I've had a little experience.