How can I tell if someone else is telling the truth?

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Humans use something called “theory of mind” to ascertain deceptive intent. It refers to a portion of the brain that people use in order to ‘simulate’ another person’s mind. This operates on autopilot most of the time and what happens is you’ll ‘get a feeling’ about that person. That feeling is your pattern-matching brain deciding that something just doesn’t add up about the person.

Depending on your desire to play Sherlock Holmes, you might devote a little conscious brain activity to deducing exactly what isn’t adding up and to fill in the blanks yourself. When done right, it’s really fun to watch. When it’s not, or the person is overconfident, then they can make themselves into an even bigger mark.