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Communication Skills

Spy the Lie Book Summary - Spy the Lie Book explained in key points

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Spy the Lie summary

Name: Spy the Lie
Rating: 4 (127 reviews)
Author: Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero and Don Tennant

Philip Houston Michael Floyd Susan Carnicero Don Tennant

Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception

4 (127 ratings)

20 mins

Brief summary

Spy the Lie by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero and Don Tennant is about how to detect deception using behavior-based interviewing methods. The book offers real-life examples and practical techniques that can help readers improve their communication skills and identify lies, whether for personal or professional reasons.

Topics

Manipulation Persuasion

Table of Contents

Spy the Lie
Summary of 10 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 10

What’s in it for me? Learn how to distill truth from a web of lies.

If someone asked you how many times you lie on a given day, how would you answer (without lying)? Some studies indicate that we lie up to an amazing 200 times per day. Others suggest that it is near ten times that amount.

We lie for numerous reasons, both good and bad: sometimes to protect others; sometimes just to save our own skins.

But no matter why people lie, many of us are involved in activities that require us to have access to truthful information. If you’re a lawyer, CEO or accountant, it doesn’t matter why people lie. What matters is the truth.

These blinks provide you with the field experience of highly trained professional lie detectors so that you can better detect whether other people are telling the truth, as well as how to ask the right questions to get people to reveal their lies.

You’ll also learn about

why it’s so hard to sit still when you’re caught in a lie,
why sports fanatics always seem to hate the referee, and
the different types of lies and various strategies to turn them against the liars themselves.

Communication is hard to interpret because it is complex and non-universal.

When was the last time you told a lie? It probably wasn’t too long ago. In fact, we all lie about ten to twenty times a day! Despite that, we’re incredibly bad at recognizing other people’s lies. How can that be?

One reason we often fail to detect lies has to do with the fact that it’s difficult for us to precisely interpret what others are communicating to us – for a number of reasons.

First, we find it hard to concentrate on verbal and nonverbal communication simultaneously.

When we communicate with one another, we employ two kinds of communication: verbal, i.e., with our speech, as well as non-verbal, i.e., using body language.

However, we find it hard to discern the communicative styles of others, since our perception of the world constantly teeters between being dominated by the visual or by the auditory.

Thus, when we are communicating with someone, we focus our energy either on listening closely to what they say or watching for clues in their body language that might give us insight into their intentions or motivations.

Unfortunately, however, we aren’t very good at doing both simultaneously, and we therefore often miss crucial elements of people’s communication.

Secondly, communication is difficult to interpret because single behaviors can actually have many causes and be interpreted in more than one way.

What does it mean, for example, when your conversation partner breaks eye contact with you? You might suspect that they’re unable to look you in the eye because they’re deceiving you. Yet again, it could also simply be that they have bad manners, or lack the self-esteem, confidence or social sophistication required to hold eye contact.

So how do you know which it is? Well, you can’t.

Humans are bad at lie detection because we have biases preventing us from evaluating information objectively.

Have you ever watched a football game with a die-hard fan of one of the teams? Chances are there was a lot of cheering, some yelling and maybe even a little cursing. How did they perceive the events on the field? They probably judged the referee’s calls based on whether they helped or hurt their favorite team.

This slanted, “non-neutral” perception of events is called a bias. We can’t help that we’re biased and, in fact, biases are very much a part of who we are: since they originate from our experiences and personal beliefs, they are quite difficult to avoid.

Don't be fooled by truthful behavior; lies can be hidden within.

As you’ve learned so far, we are naturally not very good at detecting lies. As if that weren’t enough, liars also use tricks to mask their dishonesty! If you know how they accomplish this, then you stand a better chance of resisting their manipulation.

Often, liars will use our own biases against us and imitate truthful behavior, i.e., behavior that we normally associate with honest people, in order to sneak their lies past our defenses.

Liars try to avoid lying bluntly by either not answering questions directly or not answering at all.

If you’ve ever watched a US court drama, you’ve probably heard the question, “Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

This oath actually highlights three different types of lies, all of which we’ll explore in the next blinks.

A liar might try to hide their mistruths in a web of details or by appealing to their upstanding reputation.

The next type of lie, called lies of commission, deals with the “tell the truth” part of the oath.

Lies of commission occur when liars feel the need to increase their credibility in order to avoid revealing the truth. When a simple lie wouldn’t be believable enough, they embellish their lies with details in order to make them believable

Lying is a stressful activity that can show up in physical responses.

Think back on a situation in your childhood when you had to lie to somebody about something important. How did it feel? Did the blood rush to your head? Did you get cold, sweaty palms and dry mouth? You may have even started nervously shuffling your feet in an effort to stay calm. Why is it that we respond this way?

Having to lie in the face of incriminating questions raises our stress level, which then triggers the fight-or-flight instinct. This powerful instinct instantly prepares your body to face threatening situations. Its roots are buried deep within the brain and we cannot turn it off, which explains why children often try to run away from difficult situations.

Liars often display signs of deception; judging their timing and frequency can indicate whether you’re being deceived.

Now you’re familiar with some of the ways to spot clues that people are lying. Could you pick out a liar from the crowd? Not quite. Just because you recognize one of these clues in someone’s body language doesn’t necessary mean they’re lying.

Unfortunately, the reality is that deception detection is not an exact science.

Deliver your questions in a neutral way and pay attention to the suspects’ answers.

Think of the last time you made an involuntary slip of the tongue and revealed your unconscious motives, i.e., a Freudian slip. The same thing can happen to liars when they’re making an effort to cover up the truth, thus accidentally revealing their secrets.

In order to catch a liar in this trap, you must pay careful attention to the exact, literal meaning of the answers they provide.

Be non-confrontational when you suspect a lie and avoid making the liar repeat it, as it makes them more comfortable.

Nobody enjoys being lied to. But how should you react when you suspect someone of lying to you? Is it best to confront the liar? If so, then how should you proceed?

First and foremost, you should resist the urge to be confrontational: in order to be entirely sure someone is lying, you ultimately need them to cooperate and tell you the truth.

Disrupt the liars’ game by coaxing more information from them than they’d planned to reveal.

Most of us are bad liars. And we’re also aware of that, so when we lie, we like to be prepared to make the best of it.

Indeed, a liar will have a “game plan” of which facts he’ll admit and which he’ll lie about, and will expect questions regarding those topics.

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What is Spy the Lie about?

Spy the Lie reveals the typical strategies that liars use to try to deceive you, as well as the tools to help you detect them. This book draws on field-tested methods for lie detection developed by former CIA officers, which helps to spot the signs of a lie and ask the right questions to uncover the truth.

Spy the Lie Review

Spy the Lie (2012) reveals the art and science behind detecting deception and uncovering the truth. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its real-life experiences from the authors, who are former CIA officers, the book offers an inside look into the world of deception detection.
It provides readers with practical techniques and strategies to recognize deception cues and question suspects effectively.
The book's engaging stories and examples make it an interesting and accessible guide to understanding human behavior and uncovering the truth.

Best quote from Spy the Lie

People believe lies not because they have to, but because they want to. – Malcolm Muggeridge

—Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero and Don Tennant

Who should read Spy the Lie?

Anyone who conducts interviews
Anyone who works in sales, marketing or law enforcement
Anyone interested in communication

About the Author

All the book’s authors have worked for the US government in organizations such the NSA, the CIA and the US Army Military Police. All are recognized for their competence and experience in the field of conducting of interviews, interrogations and polygraph examinations and have worked all over the globe. They are also the founding partners of QVerity, a company offering deception detection training and consulting.

Categories with Spy the Lie

Communication Skills Psychology

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