Revealing HR’s techniques for detecting lies during interviews

Revealing the skills of HR in detecting lies during interviews

Revealing the skills of HR in detecting lies in interviews. During the interview process, some personnel like to exaggerate their own advantages and tell lies to deceive. The interviewer's, but the interviewer can also see through it. Here are the techniques for HR to identify lies during the interview. Tips for HR to identify lies in interviews 1

1. Language content

There is nothing special about the verbal form of lies. They are all normal sentences or paragraphs, and there are no flaws in the expression of language. Their forms comply with the laws of grammar and logical structure. In fact, because of their purpose of deceiving, lies are all produced after full consideration and have a process of self-justification. If there are flaws in the form, how can they deceive experienced interviewers?

Since the flaws in lies are not in the form, then in general the flaws are in the content. The basic characteristic of lie content is that it is untrue. This untrue content is a fabricated illusion used to conceal the truth. Therefore, confirming that the content of a lie is an untrue illusion is the basic way to find flaws in the content of the lie. However, it is not that easy to prove that the content of lies is untrue, because lies usually describe events that have already happened or have not happened yet. What has happened is the past events that have already happened, and what is not yet is the events that have not happened yet but may happen in the future. They are events that the interviewer cannot witness. It is more difficult to judge the authenticity of something that cannot be witnessed with one's own eyes.

Due to the role of subconscious mind, liars will unconsciously leave some "flaws" in their language when they lie. Most lies may have the following four characteristics in terms of language expression.

(1) Expressing too much information

Interviewer: "The company you worked for before was engaged in ERP sales. What was your typical monthly income at that time?"

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Interviewer: “It’s usually about 8,000 yuan. This is true because the consumption level in Shanghai is relatively high. At the same time, my own sales performance is also very good, and the company’s overall industry prospects are very good. ”

Is what the interviewer said a lie? Probably.

The interviewer can infer from "This is true" and the reasons explained later, because the interviewer gave some information that the interviewer does not need to emphasize the reality of the monthly income of 8,000 yuan. sex, but the result revealed the deceptiveness of its language.

Excessive semantic information becomes a flaw in lies because it is an abnormal way of expression. Usually people's verbal communication always tries to make the appropriate amount of semantic information in the discourse, provide information according to the needs of the other party, and do not provide unnecessary information. Too much information violates this norm and tends to attract the other person's attention. Excessive information in lying is not the liar's original intention, but his error in expression. Mistakes due to excessive information are due to lack of experience, pretentiousness, and always thinking about making up lies more perfectly. Therefore, if the interviewer can also notice the abnormal expressions and movements of the liar when identifying this kind of lie, he will be more confident in identifying it.

A more credible statement is: "About 8,000 yuan."

(2) Express the content to avoid details

Interviewer: "Can you tell us about yourself? How was the relationship between you and your superior in the company you worked for last time?"

Interviewer: "Our relationship was very good. He is a very good person. He was very helpful to me and he is very experienced at work.”

Is what the interviewer said a lie? It’s possible.

Interviewers usually avoid telling some details when making up stories. Due to reasons such as nervousness or inner conflict, they are temporarily unable to tell some details that prove the "authenticity" of lies, which results in this situation. The fact that lies are simpler than usual communication information.

If he is lying, he not only has to make up a story that does not exist at all, but also makes it convincing, so he will be very guilty. Under these kinds of pressures, can he still make up the details? So most of the time, liars tell you the story very concisely and that's it.

A more credible statement is: "Our relationship was handled very well. At that time, I was doing human resources work in the company, and he was our supervisor. He was a very good person and helped me. It’s very big. I remember one time my manager asked me to make a report on the company’s human resources planning for the next two years. We went to the grassroots to interview and understand the company’s situation. He taught me the final slides bit by bit. I remember that due to time constraints, we all worked overtime at the office the night before the report. When the work was completed, we gave each other high fives to celebrate. Thinking about it, I really learned a lot from him. ”

(3) Avoid using the first-person pronoun "I"

Interviewer: "As you can see from your resume, you worked as a part-time intern at Millennium Company for three months in the second semester of your junior year. You How did you get this opportunity?"

Interviewer: "Actually, at that time, I felt that I should know what the actual work was like, so I got such information from the Internet, and then I I sent an email to the HR department of Millennium Company and was lucky enough to be accepted after the interview.”

Is what the interviewer said a lie? Most likely.

In an effort to distance themselves from lies, interviewers subconsciously avoid using the first-person pronoun "I" when telling their stories.

A more believable statement is: "At that time, I felt that I should know about the actual work, so I checked online and found that Millennium Company was recruiting part-time interns, and I sent an email to them. , and then notified me of the interview, and I was lucky enough to be admitted through the interview."

(4) The content is unreasonable

Interviewer: "You worked in Shenzhen after graduation. After a while, can you talk about your experience during that time?"

Interviewer: "That was a very unforgettable experience for me. It was a private enterprise. Although the company's total assets reached 1 billion, But the management was still very chaotic. I was assigned to serve as the assistant to the factory director of a subordinate high-tech enterprise that produced pipe piles. As a result, during the two months of work, I interviewed many employees, from production workers to vice presidents, sometimes in the middle of the night. I got up and went to the workshop and submitted a 30,000-word internship summary to the boss before I left. When I left, the boss wanted me to stay and give me a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan as the vice president of production of this pipe pile company. I already had the opportunity to further my studies, so I politely declined."

Is what the interviewer said a lie? Most likely.

In this type of lie, the interviewer can capture several suspicious semantic information. This information is temporarily connected in the lie, but the conditions for the connection violate some common sense, so it can be seen that The falsity in it. When analyzing, it is generally necessary to contact the language environment and compare similar things and their universal laws in the social environment with these suspicious points of lies, so that the falsity can easily be revealed. Similar things in society and their universal laws and the suspicious points of lies often constitute two contradictory premises, and then a conclusion can be drawn to prove that lies are false. For example, the interviewer in this case was a bachelor's degree graduate who was offered the executive position of vice president of production with a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan by his boss because of his outstanding performance during the internship. However, for any company in China, especially private companies, the monthly salary is Ten thousand and the position of vice president already means a lot of responsibility, and as a bachelor's degree graduate without any work experience, the possibility of obtaining such an opportunity is almost impossible.

A more credible statement is: "That was a very unforgettable experience for me. It was a private enterprise. Although the company's total assets reached 1 billion, its management was still very chaotic.

I was assigned to work as an assistant to the factory director in a subordinate high-tech enterprise that produced pipe piles. As a result, during the more than two months of working, I interviewed many employees, from production workers to vice presidents. Sometimes I would get up in the middle of the night to visit the workshop. Before leaving, he submitted a 30,000-word internship summary to Mr. Li. Interestingly, the factory director at the time also told me that the boss had told him that he wanted me to serve as the deputy director of this pipe pile company. ”

In short, if the interviewer is lying during the interview, his language is more likely to contain excessive information, be too general, avoid using “I”, and include some unreasonable content. In addition, if the interviewer is lying During the process, the liar may gradually make more language errors, including grammatical errors and stuttering.

2. Body language

People themselves cannot lie. , because when anyone lies, it will cause some subtle, involuntary physiological and psychological reactions, and these reactions are naturally displayed through his body language. As an interviewer, you can look for clues from the interviewer's subtle body language.

(1) What is body language?

Language is the most important tool for humans to communicate their thoughts. However, some emotions are often expressed more accurately using non-verbal signals. It shows that in the process of interpersonal communication, the credibility and reliability of the information conveyed by non-verbal means are also significantly better than that of spoken language. When the listener feels that there is a contradiction between a person's words and his behavior, he will respond. You will trust the latter more. Non-verbal expressions related to the body are called body language. Body language generally includes: expressions, gestures and postures, touch, etc.

(2) Expression

Expression is the external surface expression of feelings or emotions. Generally speaking, expression refers to the movements, states and physiological changes that occur above the neck and reflect inner changes.

1. Facial expression.

The face is the first and most exposed part of the human body. It is the most important part of the human body in conveying emotional information and is the primary source of information for expressing emotions and attitudes.

Facial skin hair. Red, pale complexion is usually a reaction to lying. If the lie is discovered, the liar will become more nervous, which sometimes causes facial congestion and makes the facial skin red.

A key clue to identifying lies is falsehood. Smile. A liar's smile rarely expresses true emotions, but is more about concealing his inner emotional world. A fake smile accompanied by a higher pitch of speech is the most powerful evidence to expose a lie.

A fake smile is due to a lack of emotion. Due to the lack of emotion, the smile looks a bit blank, the corners of the mouth are raised, and the facial expressions will unconsciously reveal a person's fake smile.

Smiles reflect true emotions and are produced by the cheek muscles that can pull the corners of the mouth upward. When the cheek muscles contract strongly, they will elongate the lips and pull the entire cheek upward, making the skin under the eyes droop like pockets and causing crow's feet under the eyes. Wrinkles. Fake smiles are not as symmetrical as smiles, and the muscles around the eyes do not move with them.

Fake smiles last longer than real smiles. The time can only be between 2/3 seconds and 4 seconds, and its length mainly depends on the intensity of the emotion. Fake smiles are different, they last longer and make people feel awkward. This is mainly because fake smiles lack the intrinsic motivation of real emotion. In fact, if any expression lasts for more than 10 seconds or 5 seconds, most of them may be fake. The only exceptions are displays of strong emotions such as anger and ecstasy, and these expressions often last for a shorter period of time.

When you fake smile, the expressions on both sides of the nostrils are often slightly asymmetrical. People who are accustomed to using their right hands raise the left corner of their mouth higher when they fake smile, while people who are accustomed to using their left hands raise the right corner of their mouth higher when they fake smile.

2. Eyes

There is a song that sings: "Your eyes betray your heart." In many cases, the frequency of blinking, the direction of the eyeballs, changes in visual methods, etc. can express certain psychological content.

The action of blinking can also reflect inner activities. Generally speaking, people rarely blink when they are concentrating on thinking. This is because the process of extracting information from the brain requires vision. When a person blinks too much, his thinking is not active. On the contrary, when his blinking begins to slow down, it means that he is entering a thinking state. The interviewer can tell whether the interviewer is thinking by the way the interviewer blinks.

Human eyes are controlled by the brain. The human brain is divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere processes spatial, image and overall information; the right hemisphere processes language, mathematics and rational information. When people are thinking about a problem, their eyes will move to the left and right. People who move their gaze to the left may be using their right hemisphere to process information. About 70% of people's eyes always move in one direction. In other words, a person's habit of moving his eyes to the left or right may not always change. Because people generally move their eyes when they are thinking about a problem. Therefore, if the interviewer moves his eyes when the interviewer asks a question that does not require thinking, it most likely means that he does not want to tell the information easily, or that he wants to lie; if the interviewer asks a question that requires thinking If the interviewer did not move his eyes when the question was asked, it means that he did not think creatively and may have prepared the answers in advance and knew what questions the interviewer would ask.

The eyes are also the culprit of revealing people’s inner secrets. When people are talking, maintaining eye contact and daring to look directly at each other shows that each other does not avoid problems; trying to avoid the other person's direct gaze is a fear of being seen by the secrets hidden deep in the heart. When lying, interviewers often rub their eyes to cover up.

(3) Gestures and postures

Gestures refer to various action postures expressed by hands and arms. Posture refers to the various postures made by various parts of the body with the trunk as the main body and the different states presented. Gestures and postures can also send emotional and postural signals.

During the interview, if the interviewer finds that the interviewer gestures more, but as the conversation progresses the interviewer's hand movements decrease, then the interviewer may have been lying, because When the interviewer focuses on the content of his speech and body movements become no longer spontaneous but deliberate, these body movements will be significantly reduced. The decrease in body movements may be because the interviewer is lying and is focusing on monitoring the verbal content of the lie. At the same time, subconsciously, people think that waving their hands will reveal their secrets, so they may unconsciously hide their hands and put them in their pockets when lying.

When people lie and worry about their lies being exposed, they will become very nervous and restless. They will put their hands behind their backs to cover up their uneasy mental state, or they will hold each other tightly, or hold the other person's hand. The part of the hand above the wrist, depending on where you hold it, will have different levels of tension. Generally speaking, the closer the grip is to the elbow of the other arm, the higher the tension on it. Of course, many interviewees are too nervous during interviews and will clasp their hands even if they communicate honestly. Therefore, the interviewer needs to analyze and examine multiple body languages.

The posture of crossed arms expresses a sense of defense, rejection, and protest, and shows the existence of psychological factors such as contradictions, the interaction of multiple situations, or tension. When the interviewer lies or is afraid that his lie will be exposed, the interviewer will always have a defensive mentality, and he does not want others to approach or obtain any information. When it was inconvenient to express it in words, he would adopt certain gestures to show rejection and protest.

(4) Touch

The interviewer can detect signs that the interviewer is lying through the interviewer's touching behavior.

1. Touching the mouth

When people are lying or speaking ill of others, they often cover their mouths with their hands. There are two ways to cover your mouth with your hands. One is to touch your lips lightly with your fingertips, and the other is to make your hands into a fist and cover your mouth.

No matter what kind of action, it is all to cover up one's true intention of lying. Blocking the movement of the mouth gives people an overly obvious expression and prevents the other party from noticing. When lying, there will be a feeling of guilt and fear deep in the heart, making one feel uneasy and uncomfortable. This is a physiological reaction when a person lies. In order to overcome his own discomfort, he covered his mouth with his hands to cover himself up and calm himself down. Therefore, there are two reasons for covering your mouth with your hands. One is to control yourself and calm yourself; the other is to cover yourself up and prevent others from knowing that you are lying.

2. Touch the neck

The neck is also an important organ for the human body to convey information. Touching your neck or pulling your collar with your hands is also a sign of lying. When lying, the negative thinking in the brain will cause itching in the muscle tissue of the face and neck, which requires the use of hands to scratch. The direct way is to touch it with your hands. However, when you realize that the other person has noticed that you are lying, you will often become very nervous, causing sweating on your neck, and pull the collar to allow the air around the neck to circulate, thus eliminating the itching feeling.

(5) Symbolic movements

Symbolic movements refer to physical movements, facial expressions or body postures that have precise meaning within a specific cultural group. These symbolic actions may have different or even no special meaning to members of other cultural groups. Frowning, nodding, shaking the head and raising the eyebrows are all symbolic actions.

Symbolic actions have local color and have different meanings in different regions and countries. This requires the interviewer to try to understand as much as possible the symbolic actions and meanings of the interviewer's place. .

Symbolic movements are a unique way of non-verbal communication. Although they are usually under the control of personal consciousness, they may sometimes exceed the will of the individual and be revealed unconsciously. When a symbolic action is completely opposite to the meaning of the speech, it means that the interviewer's non-verbal behavior betrays his lie. For example, a slight nod (to express affirmation) may indicate that the "negative" statement is a lie; or when the interviewer says that he is interested, but then takes back his hands that are open on the table, folds them in front of his chest, and puts his hands in front of his chest. Leaning back (indicating rejection and disinterest) may indicate that the interviewer was lying when he said he was interested.

German researchers Fiedler and Volka (1993) have achieved great success in training people to improve their ability to detect lies. They summarized seven clues with the highest accuracy in detecting lies, the first three of which are body language expressions: 1. Pretended smile; 2. Lack of head movements; 3. Adaptive movements (in order to make oneself feel comfortable, Such as touching nose, clenching hands, scratching head, etc.) frequency increases. Therefore, for the interviewer, if he can clearly notice the body language of the interviewer during the interview and analyze it, he can have reason to suspect that the interviewer is lying, and this will help the background investigation during the recruitment process and the final hiring decision. Provide reference basis. Tips for HR to identify lies in interviews 2

First question, what to ask? How to ask?

We often see that when the interviewers have arrived, the interviewer hurriedly looks at the resume and then starts the interview. Ask whatever comes to mind? The same is true for many HR personnel. They do not prepare for interviews, which leads to many interview questions. Many people fail to do this step. So, how to analyze a resume and find the questions that should be asked? Generally speaking, it includes two major types of questions:

One type is questions that look for doubts, such as working hours (whether they are continuous, whether there are gaps), changes in job positions (if from specialist to supervisor to Manager, this is reasonable, but if there are any jumps, you need to pay attention), the size of the company (how big is it, how many people there are, some need to be checked online), of course it is not just these, what is the so-called big forest? It all depends on the position being recruited and the resume. There is no fixed question.

The other type is questions about positions. You need to prepare a few questions. You should ask these questions so that you know what to expect. These issues can be roughly fixed as long as the positions are the same.

The first type of questions, in general, cannot be answered simply by asking, but the attitude of the interviewer can be seen here. If the interviewer admits some of these problems, such a job applicant will It's still good. You can consider it. For interviewers who refuse to admit their mistakes, it's useless to ask more questions. They can only identify them through other means. I will talk about it later, so I won't go into details here.

For the second type of questions, you can use the STAR method and the 5W2H interview method, plus the questioning method. The STAR interview method is a very practical method in structured interviews. The STAR principle is Situation, Task, Action and Result. Simply put, when an interviewer answers a question, The content of the answer must include the above four aspects, that is, under what background, what thing was done, what method was used, and what was the final result. For example, the interviewer will say, with the help of colleagues in the department, I worked hard and finally completed this task. What is obviously missing here is A: Action. It does not say what measures and methods were taken. We need to ask, what measures were taken to complete this task? I also asked, what work did "I" do in this matter, and what work did my colleagues assist me in doing? Only by asking questions step by step like this, it will be difficult for the interviewer to conceal it, because one lie requires countless lies to cover up.

Of course we can also use the 5W2H method. (What? - What goal and content?, Where? - Where to start?, When? - When will it be completed?, Who? - Who will undertake it?, Why? - What reason?, How? - How to implement it? - How much?) In fact, this method is similar to STAR. Any task includes these contents. It is more direct and simpler than STAR. It can solve a problem. Break it up and ask the interviewer from these aspects.

Using these two methods, the most important thing is not the first question, but the following questions. Each question must be followed by at least two or three more questions. Only by constantly asking can we discover the truth of things. nature. You may ask, how to ask? The follow-up questions come from the interviewer's answers. Those that are vague or unclear are the beginning of the next question.

Second look, what are you looking at? What do you think?

Look at the interviewer’s micro-expressions and micro-reactions. Language can be modified and expressions can be disguised, but the micro-expressions made instinctively must be true. Using subtle facial expressions and body language, you can determine the true meaning behind the other person's words and deduce whether he is lying.

Of course, this cannot be learned at once, it requires a learning process, but we can start from a simple place. Micro-expressions are more difficult to learn. For interviews, learning some micro-reactions is enough. It’s used, I won’t talk much about the theory, just give a few examples.

For example, Hepburn in the classic movie "Roman Holiday", that classic smile, do you think it is real or fake?

Reality is always not beautiful. This smile is not real. It is a typical fake smile, a smile made for the sake of posing.

How to distinguish a fake smile from a real smile? The most important thing is to look at the crow's feet muscles. Whether it is a child or the elderly, when they really smile, they will grin with the corners of the mouth upward, and the crow's feet muscles are wrinkled together. Crow's feet are the same whether you have crow's feet or not. When you fake smile, the expression of your mouth is the same, but the crow's feet muscles remain unchanged.

Regarding micro-reactions, the most famous picture is the Clinton scandal case. When he said a sentence, the direction of his gestures was obviously inconsistent with the direction of his eyes, which was a lie.

There is also a typical micro-reaction to lying, which is touching your nose if you have nothing to do. If you don’t have a cold or a sore, touching your nose is generally lying; if you touch your neck when answering a question, if your neck is not sick, you are lying. Lying is a classic compulsive behavior. There are many more, so I won’t introduce them one by one here. Friends who are interested can find books on this subject and learn slowly.

Three checks, what to check? How to check?

It’s a background check. Some of the questions we mentioned earlier cannot yield any results, so we need to understand them from the side. Documents and certificates can generally be authenticated through the Internet. Problems in this area are easy to solve. Investigation of other aspects of content requires some effort.

Background investigation is a relatively difficult task. It is best to find people you know. It may be much easier to investigate. Otherwise, many contents will be difficult to investigate. The contents of the investigation include: (1) Working hours, positions, job responsibilities, etc., which may be easier to investigate; (2) Regarding salary and benefits, work performance, interpersonal relationships, reasons for resignation, etc., these are difficult to investigate, and others do not know the salary. I will easily tell you that the interpersonal relationships, performance, etc. may all be said to be pretty good, or the performance is just okay, etc. Even if the employee's performance in the company is not good and the interpersonal relationships are not good, most outsiders will not say this is not good when asked. Yes, after all, everyone still has to show mercy.

For example, if you survey an employee, you will get these three answers: (1) Lao Luo is very good; (2) Lao Luo is not bad; (3) Lao Luo, not bad. If you understand the meaning carefully, you will be able to tell the difference. Therefore, background investigation is also a technical job. It does not mean what others say. You must be able to understand the meaning behind the words.

The background check must find at least two people, one is from the human resources department, and the other is the direct superior of the interviewer’s original company. The content of the human resources department’s investigation is working hours , positions, job responsibilities, etc., generally focusing on things recorded in files. If the company is large and has many employees, the understanding of the employees may be limited. If the company is small, it is another matter. For the interviewer's direct superior, the main questions are about the work situation and performance.

Generally, everyone is very busy. Many such surveys are conducted by phone. It is relatively easy to call the human resources department. It may be a little difficult to transfer to the business department. Others may not cooperate. If For those who are unwilling to transfer, here is a little tip that I borrowed from sales. For example, we want to find a supervisor in the R&D department to conduct a survey, and we don’t know what this person’s last name is. What should we do? We can dial any number and ask: "Is this the R&D department?" The other party will say: "No, this is such-and-such department", and you then ask: "Can you please tell me the extension?" Generally, if the other party is not very vigilant, they will tell you, even if they are unwilling to tell you. , just call a few more, someone will always tell you. After you get the extension, you have to find someone. The method is the same. After dialing the phone, just say a last name. The other party will say, our supervisor’s last name is not ××, but ××. That’s it. It’s better if you have Any ideas are welcome to share.

This article only makes some analysis from three major aspects. The prerequisite for detecting lies is to do solid work and accumulate experience. There is no absolutely effective method, and multiple methods are needed. Only by combining multiple methods can we evaluate an interviewer comprehensively and fairly, which is responsible for both the company and the interviewer.