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Wednesday, June 3, 1998 Published at 07:44 GMT 08:44 UK

Flushing out the fibbers

Shrugging, nose tugging and sitting on your hands are apparently clues to deceit.

We've all done it, haven't we? Embellished our c.v., exaggerated our skills, told a few white lies to get that job we've set our hearts on.

Prof Adrian Furnham: "We are all good torso liars."
But beware. A British professor says he has come up with a foolproof system of catching out those who tell fibs during job interviews.

Adrian Furnham, a professor of psychology at University College, London, outlines his techniques at a seminar this week hosted by the Institute of Personnel and Development.

[ image: Prof Adrian Furnham:
Prof Adrian Furnham: "There is a tendency to embellish the truth"
Prof Furnham says: "There is a frequent tendency to embellish the truth in interviews which has tended to weaken their objectivity as a recruitment tool.

'Slipping through the net'

"But the ability to detect falsity in facial expression or manner of speech can hold the key to reducing the likelihood of a candidate slipping through the net by the most fantastic deceit."

Businessmen and personnel managers attending the seminar, entitled Creating the Right Impression, will be told to watch out for differences between what an interviewee is saying and the way he says it.

He says body language is a real give-away and warns bosses to look for interviewees doing the following:

Making long verbal tirades.

Sweating, going red in the face or having dilated pupils.

Shrugging and touching their noses a lot and shifting in their seats.

Smiling without using their eye muscles.

Sitting on their hands or gripping the arm of their chair.

Prof Furnham said other emotions, such as fear, sadness or false enthusiasm could also be betrayed by a lack of expression in the forehead and muscles.

He said interviews were so crucial to the job application process that many people were tempted into making "little lies" in order to show themselves in their best light.

Criminal or compulsive liars remain a tiny proportion of the total number of job applicants.

Prof Furnham, whose research could also be of interest to detectives, journalists and insurance assessors, said: "Lying at interviews can take many forms and has different levels.

"There is the tendency to attribute desirable characteristics or deny undesirable ones.

'Seek to fool the interviewer'

"Then there are the self-deceivers - those who believe their own positive self-reports and lastly those who deliberate seek to fool the interviewer through lies."

But there is good news for those of us who dread face-to-face interviews - they are on the decline.

Graeme Wright, director of media and research at Park Human Resources, tells another IPD seminar traditional techniques such as the interview are becoming less used.