Can people spot lies?

People are generally not good at spotting lies. Popular beliefs about indicators of lying, such as avoiding eye contact or fidgeting, are not reliable. Studies indicate that people do no better than chance in detecting lies. This applies even to professionals like police interrogators, who often think they can detect lies but actually can't do so reliably. Books or seminars claiming to teach effective lie detection techniques generally do not provide a reliable method for spotting liars, and overconfidence in these methods can lead to false judgments 1 2.