Deception Tip 41 – Touch The Nose – How To Detect Deception

Hello and welcome to the deception tips podcast where you will learn amazing cues to detect deceit that will help you read people like never before. I’m your host Spencer Coffman, let’s get started.

Welcome to episode 41 of the deception tips podcast. I’m really thrilled that you guys are continuing to listen to this podcast, that you guys are motivated to learn more about body language, detecting deception, and reading people so that you will know what everybody is saying. 

What every body is saying as in body language, not only just everybody but yes what every body is actually saying with those hidden signs of body language and deception because the truth is written all over not only our faces but also our entire bodies.

So, I’m thrilled again that you guys are continuing to listen to this podcast and learn more about detecting deception and reading people. And you know what, I’d be really thrilled if you guys would share this or leave a review somewhere on iTunes or wherever you’re listening, whether it’s iHeartRadio, anywhere, just to get the word out so we can get more people learning about body language and detecting deception.

Because with anything, the more you talk about it, the more you hear it, the more repetition that you have the better off you are going to be at recognizing these signs of deception and body language. So, thanks again for continuing to listen, I really hope you can help me out with a share or a like or a follow, whatever the case may be.

Anyway, you’re not listening to hear me talk about helping me promote this, you’re listening because you want to learn more about body language and detecting deception. Last time, we talked about how confident people tend to spread out more, they take up more space, whereas liars take up less space. This is evidenced many times and there are many different behaviors that go with this.

So, let’s put together some of those clusters of behaviors in sort of a little bit of a recap with what we talked about last week. Number one, liars, tend to sometimes can maybe even fold their arms, which would be taking up less space. 

This was talked about way back in episode number one if you haven’t listened to it listen to it. That was episode number one, folding arms, that’s an example of taking up less space.

It also happens in other things we talked about with less space, things like crossing the legs and tucking them backward, which is taking up less space. Another one is stepping backward, that was episode 29 where they step backward and almost ward off the accusation. 

Sometimes they can put their hands up which would take up a little bit more space, but other times they usually step backward, they might fold their arms, hunch their shoulders, things like that, there are a lot of different things.

Now, I’m going to back up one second, when I said that they may put their legs and cross them, oftentimes they tuck them back under their chair and lock their ankles, that was episode 22. So, all of these things are concealing behavior where they shrink to take up less space.

They might fold their arms, they might lock their ankles underneath their chair, they might tuck them back, they might hunch over, if they’re standing, they may step backward. All of that is done to take up less space, that is a big cluster or a pattern of behavior. 

As I’ve said many times before, it is so very important that you look for patterns and clusters of behavior because it is only through seeing patterns and clusters that you can be certain, I mean, certain that someone is being deceptive or telling a lie or something.

You’re not going to know exactly what they are lying about but you will know that they are not telling the truth because where there is smoke there is fire. If there are a lot of signs of smoke, you can be sure there is fire and that is what a pattern or a cluster of behavior is. One or two things, who knows, it’s a suspicion, you have four or five, now you know something is going on.

With that, we continue with how they are taking up less space. Why do they take up less space? Because it’s a very simple reason, if there is less of their body for you to see and observe, then it’ll be fewer signs of leakage that they will display, so that is why they take up less space when they are trying to get away with a lie. 

So, in and of itself, the act of them covering up their lie or trying to prevent those signs of body language from coming out actually is a sign of deception in and of itself.

So, with that, let’s move on to today. Today we are going to talk about a sign of deception that is on the face. This sign is most typically displayed in men, however, women can do it as well and they have almost their own variation of it. So, we’re going to talk about a sign that is touching the nose.

Now, you may say oh, touching the nose, what is that? Well, this is something that happens a lot when people tell lies and it is something that a lot of people may not really know about. They don’t really see it as a lie because it is a natural behavior and it happens all the time. 

Well, remember that people tell lies all the time, some estimates say that people tell about 50 lies a day, others say hundreds of lives a day, and others say about one or two lies in every 10 minutes of conversation.

So, people are lying like crazy all the time and with that, this is deception tip number 41. Liars may touch the bottom of their nose with one finger, usually the index, in a side-to-side motion. Here it is again, deception tip 41. Liars may touch the bottom of their nose with one finger, usually the index, in a side-to-side motion.

So, here we go, let’s break this down real quick before we go to a break, liars may touch the bottom of their nose. This is like the bottom of the nose, it’s not the sides where your nostrils meet or it’s not the top of the nose, it is the bottom of the nose, the bridge of the nose between the two nostrils where there’s that little flap of skin right there, they touch that.

Usually, the only way people really touch it when they’re lying is with a finger and it’s usually the index finger because they’re using it in some form, and they go side to side. It’s almost like they’re brushing their teeth, but they’re actually brushing the bottom of their nose, it’s that type of visual, its side to side and it’s more of a swooping.

Usually, when it’s a deceptive gesture, it’s done back and forth, so like one time down back and that is it. Sometimes when people have their nose itch, they may use the whole hand almost like a karate chop and they’ll go back and forth like rapidly like boom, boom, boom, or one finger back and forth, that’s just an itch. But if it happens a couple of times where it’s just back forth, then it could be a potential deceptive behavior.

So, we’re going to break this down, we’re going to talk about it a little bit more, and we’re going to explain why it happens and the reasoning behind it. What’s going on and why it happens with men more than women, all of that coming up right after this.

Do you want to be a lie spotter but don’t have time to do the research? Check out Spencer Coffman’s deception tips blog and learn how to detect deception. You’ll be an expert at detecting lies, that’s spencercoffman.com.

All right, here we are, we’re talking about liars and the behaviors they express when lying. This is deception tip number 41 on how liars may touch the bottoms of their nose, so keep listening, we’ve got a lot in store and I encourage you to listen over and over again to really learn what is going on.

So, we mention how there are a couple of different things within this deception tip. Liars may touch the bottom of their nose, that’s this flap of skin between the two nostrils, then they usually use one finger, usually the index finger and it is in a side-to-side motion. There are a couple of variations of this behavior that may not necessarily mean people are being deceptive.

The first one is when it is done rapidly, back forth, back forth, back forth like an itch, they’re scratching an itch on their nose. The second is when they would use their thumb and index finger, usually where the fingerprint is on the finger, so it’s the pads of the finger and they just touch both sides of their nose.

This is usually done where they come from the top of the nostrils and go down touching the bridge of their nose. That is more of an itch again, or maybe their nose is running, something like that. Another thing people could do is use their sleeve or the palm of their hand and they go up, that’s usually a wiping nose gesture, that’s nothing really, it’s not a deceptive behavior. However, it could be but typically, that is something else.

So, those are some variations to watch for that may not mean someone is being deceptive. The red flag with nose gestures being deceptive is the index finger or a finger in a side to side motion, back and forth, where they hit the bottom bridge of the nose and go back and forth. This is due to a sensitive tissue that is on the bottom of the nose.

Now, this is in both men and women, however with men, that tissue there is a little bit more sensitive. Don’t ask why, it’s just how the biology is, it’s more of an erectile tissue down there that is sensitive so that when men are lying, it will start to tingle itch, they go like that, they adjust their nose, whatever, will scratch that itch, per se.

Women have it as well, they have that itch there too, when they start to lie, it starts to tingle. It’s almost like another type of nose gesture when lying, and it’s called the Pinocchio effect, like how Pinocchio, when he would lie his nose would grow. 

In humans, when we lie, we have that tissue in our nose and it starts to turn red. Instead of the Pinocchio effect, it should really be called the Rudolph effect because it’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

When humans lie, because we have all of that sensitive tissue in our nose, it starts to turn red on the tip of our nose, so that should be called the Rudolph effect. We are effectively renaming it right now, it is no longer Pinocchio effect, it’s now the Rudolph effect, copyright Spencer Coffman. 

Anyway, the tissue on the bottom of the nose, that’s what we’re talking about today, in a side-to-side motion, men have a more sensitive tissue there than women. Women, still do this behavior, so it is something to watch out for with both males and females.

Another variation that you can see, and we’ve talked about this one before, is how there is some sensitive tissue on the back of the neck where when people lie, they tend to reach a hand back there and massage their neck or just even grab their neck. 

One arm, one hand, it’s the back of the neck, that one we talked about when we talked about the tense neck, I mentioned it a little bit in episode 38, but it’s mainly where they massage away the tension on the back of their neck.

They put a hand to the back of the neck, and massage away that tension, we’ll talk about that more in a future episode but for now, it is similar in that it is sensitive tissue. There’s sensitive tissue in the back of the neck, everyone likes a good neck massage and sensitive tissue on the bottom of the nose that when people lie, they may itch and rub.

Now, with that, you should always be looking for some patterns and clusters of behavior because someone itching their nose doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lying. It could mean anything, maybe their nose itches, maybe they have a cold, maybe they’re stuffed up, maybe they smelled something that made their nose run. Maybe there are some onions or some pepper, maybe they’re trying to stifle a sneeze.

You’ve seen that in cartoons and movies all the time where people are about to sneeze, they aah, aah, and then someone puts their finger right under the bridge of their nose and for some reason, it stops them from sneezing and they’re like, oh, thanks and then ahhchoo, they sneeze right away.

So, obviously didn’t really work, it’s just something the cartoon artist did for a humorous thing to put in the cartoon or to lengthen it or who knows what. Anyway, you’ll see that so that could be a variety of reasons that people may be putting a finger underneath their nose. 

Typically, you can see people make fun of that Hitler mustache where they put their finger under their nose like that, so that could be done, maybe they’re just having a laugh.

You never know from any one behavior that it means someone is being deceptive or that they are lying. This is why again, it is so important that you look for the patterns and clusters of behavior, so look for multiple behaviors. Touching the bottom of a nose is done from sensitivity.

So, look for them touching the bottom of their nose, look for the nose turning red a little bit, look for the massaging of the back of the neck, look for those types of behaviors all going together. Typically, when they touch their nose, that is a gesture, it’s a hand to face gesture, which means you should look for synchronization with their speech, look for all their other hand movements.

If they’re matching their speech patterns, look for that entire pattern of behavior because if they’re touching their nose it’s a hand-to-face gesture, look for other gestures. Are they touching their face when you touch your face as in mirrored movements? 

We spoke about that a few times ago, not long so hopefully you remember, it was an episode 35 where usually when you do a gesture, the truthful people would tend to match those gestures, those mirror movements.

Untruthful people or liars are more focused on their lie, they are more focused on telling the lie, so they’re not paying attention to those subtle subliminal unconscious cues that we would all mirror. It’s almost like a yawn, when you yawn, I’m going to yawn, so and so is going to yawn, etc.

Liars, they may not be doing that because they’re so focused on the lie, they are focused on or open to the other things that happen around us naturally or unconsciously. Because their unconscious is so focused on leaking behaviors to get the truth out so that someone will see through the conscious’ lie and the conscious’ deception and the truth will be found. So, remember, continue to look for patterns and clusters of behavior.

I want to thank you for listening to the deception tips podcast, and I really hope that you’ll share it with your friends, subscribe to the feed, check out the deception tips videos, the deception tips blog, and take a look at the books I have available and as always tune in next week for a new deception tip.

Hey guys, my name is Spencer Coffman, thank you for watching the deception tips videos. They’re all about teaching you how to read people and detect deception so that you will be able to tell if someone is lying to you. Today, we’re going to talk about a sign of deception that happens on the face. It is something that happens in everyday conversation and it could happen for a couple of different reasons. 

Like a lot of deception tips, there are many reasons that things could happen, and you need to watch for patterns and clusters of behavior to determine what is really going on. It is a sign that you’ll see all the time and you don’t really notice it because you think it’s a natural part of behavior.

So, here it is, this is deception tip number 41. Liars may touch the bottom of their nose with one finger, usually the index, in a side-to-side motion. There are a couple of different points with this, liars will touch the bottom of their nose. The bottom of their nose doesn’t mean down here where the tip is, it means down here where their lip meets their nose. It is this little piece that goes between the two nostrils, that covers up the cartilage of your nose, it’s the bridge of your nose down here.

They touch that usually with one finger, usually it’s the index, why? Because our index finger is the pointer finger, it’s the one we use all the time when pointing and directing different things. So, they go like this and it’s almost like they’re brushing their teeth, it’s back and forth. You’ll see that a lot when people lie and the reason is because this is some sensitive tissue. 

Oftentimes, as you know, like you smell certain things, pepper, your nose can tingle or if you start to have an allergic reaction you might feel some tingling, usually, it’s down here in this area of the nose. That is because it is very sensitive and when people lie their stress, tension, all of those things make them a little bit more sensitive or a little bit hypersensitive. So, the nose may be triggering, and they’ll go like this and itch their nose and it’s no problem. 

People touch the nose for a variety of reasons, so keep in mind that when you see this type of nose touch that might not be it or if it’s something with their arm or their sleeve, they could just be wiping their nose. Maybe they have an itch or maybe they’re clever and they’re just mixing it up out there, so you don’t pay attention or you don’t catch on to it.

When people do that with their nose it’s something that you think may be normal but it’s really not because now that you know about it, you’re going to pay attention to it. Keep in mind this gesture is going to be different for men and for women. So typically, males are going to be the ones to do this more than women because just the way that their face is structured and designed their nose tissues aren’t going to be a little bit more reactive and sensitive to that.

Also, a lot of men may have facial hair so that could contribute to itching underneath the nose especially if they have mustaches. That’s another point that you need to be aware of is if someone has a mustache and they’re touching their nose that could be a legitimate reason. Maybe they are itching, something is going on because their whiskers tickled them, you never know what could be going on. So, you need to think about all the different possibilities and the reasons why that could happen. 

One thing that’s very important is if you start to notice these behaviors on yourself and then think about why did I do that? Then you can start to see them on other people and think well when I did that behavior this was going through my head, I had this happen, this was going on around me, so it could have been that. Then you can start to have like sympathy, empathy type of a thing with those other people that do that behavior. 

You can start to understand that well if it was this way for me, it could be that way for them, so they may not be lying. Then you’ll really be able to understand more of what’s going on inside their head and why those behaviors are being leaked and why they are doing those behaviors. It could be intentional, it could be unintentional, conscious, unconscious, it could be because they’re lying and maybe because they just have an itch they need to scratch.

So again, you’re going to hear this, it’s like I’m beating a dead horse here, watch for patterns and clusters of behaviors because if someone is lying there will always be more than one sign. You will see more than one sign as long as you’re paying attention to them and as long as you are looking for them.

If this is the first time that you are watching these videos, I’d love to have you subscribe to the channel on YouTube so that you can learn more about all the different signs we have. Also, if you’d like some more information, we’ve got books, podcasts, blog posts, all available on spencercoffman.com that are dedicated to teaching you exactly what every body is really saying.

Until next time.