Hallmarks of deception

People can get away with lying because deception is a semantic game.  Some are really good with semantics, others are lousy.  Semantics is the study of what people mean with their words.  Immediate context is the most important part of semantic lying.  When people speak there is a general topic, but lying takes place inside a more immediate space of time.  What words made up the utterance just prior to the deception maker's remarks?  Follow the logic on a micro scale (one person's thought in an utterance to trigger the following person's thought in his or her utterance)  and you'll see the deception.  Connect one's utterance to the topic, the macro scale and you miss the blip on the radar.

Hedging is the second most important marker in deceiving people. Hedge in the right way, and you can perform hocus pocus with your words just like magicians' misdirections to hide what is happening away from your eyes.  Using filler's is the hall mark hedge, "well" and "uh" in particular.  Lapsed time can also be a hedge when it is longer than what normal people use when formulating an answer to a question.  Changing someone's statement, however, is the key to success in hedging.  When a person wants to change some of the words, what part of the word domain did that person not like about the original?  The answer to that question would definitely be the trail to follow.

It takes practice to lie, and it takes practice to detect lying.  People expect and want honesty, and don't mistrust until they are given a reason.  In the length of time from expectation and desire to a reason to mistrust, deception has happened.  It's too late unless you're practiced, to ferret out the truth.