Prof Wiseman: “This is how you spot a liar”

Warning, you’ll hear a lie in this episode. You won’t be told it's a lie. And 29% of those who listen probably won’t spot the lie. But if you listen till the end, you’ll learn the proven tips to spot lies like these. Today on Nudge, Professor Richard Wiseman explains: 1) How to spot a liar 2) What makes someone lucky 3) If we’re really separated by six connections 4) And why enlarged pupils made men buy books --- Richard’s book Quirkology: Richard’s book 59 Seconds: Richard’s SubStack: Join 11,934 readers of the Nudge Newsletter: Unlock the Nudge Vaults: Connect on LinkedIn: --- Today’s sources: DePaulo, B. M., & Morris, W. L. (2004). Discerning lies from truths: Behavioural cues to deception and the indirect pathway of intuition. In P. A. Granhag & L. A. Strömwall (Eds.), The detection of deception in forensic contexts (pp. 15–40). Cambridge University Press. The Global Deception Research Team. (2006). A world of lies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(1), 60–74. Milgram, S. (1967). The small-world problem. Psychology Today, 1, 61–67. Stewart, J. E., II. (1980). Defendant’s attractiveness as a factor in the outcome of criminal trials: An observational study. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10(4), 348–361. Vrij, A. (2000). Detecting lies and deceit: The psychology of lying and the implications for professional practice. John Wiley & Sons. Wiseman, R. (1995). The Megalab truth test. Nature, 373, 391. Wiseman, R. (2003, June 4). It really is a small world that we live in. The Daily Telegraph, p. 16.

You can listen to Prof Wiseman: “This is how you spot a liar” online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Prof Wiseman: “This is how you spot a liar” is an episode from Nudge - Marketing Science Podcast by Phill Agnew.

This episode is 30:57 long.

This episode was published on Apr 27, 2026.

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