Can you see lying?

Last week I had lunch with a friend and we talked about the ability to read people, specifically the ability to tell when someone is lying. I wondered after that discussion what clues might ‘show’ a person is lying. Apparently Sherlock Holmes, who was a fictional character created by Sir Conan Doyle, had the ability to use small subtle clues to make large observations. Funny how we cannot ‘see’ certain things, yet Sherlock presumably, could see these clues. Why can’t anyone tap into this ability if they really focus?

The clues can be small – like a blink, a look, a hand gesture, or even a change in their voice tone. I imagine most people can see, hear, and experience the signs, but not all of us process this data in the same way. I imagine two people who look at the same exact piece of paper, but one has 20/20 vision, one is using binoculars, and the other has red-green color blindness. Something tells me what they ‘see’ would be different.

When someone comes to you with a problem, remember they may not be ‘looking’ at it the same way you are. Think of ways to embrace the viewpoint differences. You may need to help educate others to see what you can see. What at first they see, may not be all that is possible and maybe it just takes some practice to improve their vision. Maybe like Sherlock Holmes we can all learn ‘how’ to see subtle clues that tell us some important information. Oddly the best tool for learning, may be learning from each other. Is that what you see?


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