17 Genius Ways To Lie Like A Spy - Best Life

Unless you’re a compulsive liar or a professional con artist (honestly, we hope you’re neither), you probably find that lying doesn’t come naturally to you. Let’s be clear: that’s a good thing.

Now, we’d never encourage you to take up the dark art of deceit, but there are cases in which lying is actually a good thing, and it would behoove you to be a little better at it. To help you out, we asked people whose jobs it is to assess whether someone is being honest with them—CIA officers, poker champs, law enforcement officials, therapists, and more—to get their insights on how to avoid getting caught when you’re trying to tell a whopper. So read on, and good luck!

1 Trust Your Skills

This might seem obvious, but even the smallest adjustment to your story is likely to raise suspicions in a skeptical listener. “If you change anything about your original story, you introduce contradiction and degrade credibility,” says Bustamante. “Even bold-faced lying will be accepted as ‘possible truth’ as long as you keep your story consistent. Don’t believe me? Watch the debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012.”

Know what your story is down to the smallest details, and don’t veer away from it from one telling to the next.

3 Keep Your Lies Believable

One of the best ways to avoid looking like a liar is to not know whether you are lying at all.

“Professional poker players will deny information to themselves so that they can’t reveal any secret information,” says Michael Josem, a poker security expert.

He gives the example of a pro poker player who might not even look at their cards until it is their turn to act, so that even if they had a bad habit of subtle reactions to their cards, players who have to act earlier can’t learn anything from them.

“Similarly, they can avoid looking at community cards until it is their turn—and instead spend that time focused on observing opponents,” he says.

5 Keep Your Mouth Shut

Body language is often a deadlier giveaway than any words coming out of your mouth, so just as you want to minimize your conversation, the same is true of your body language. Act natural, but keep your movements limited.

“Fundamentally, poker is a game of information, and the more information you give to an opponent, the more likely they’ll make a good decision,” says Josem. “Thus, two sophisticated players will try to control their bodies to behave in a very repetitive manner each hand—so that as little information as possible is being given off.”

7 Ground Statements in Truth

Defensiveness is a dead giveaway that you have something to hide. If the person you are speaking with raises questions about your story, keep things light, cheery, and casual.

“If you are questioned, smile,” says MacLeod. “This immediately takes the heat off you and paints you as totally innocent. Attempt to help the listener get it: ‘Not sure what you don’t understand. You know how slow those clerks are at X store—remember the time we waited 15 minutes to get a price?’ Getting the attention off you and using what you know throws your listener off.”

9 Breathe