Attributes of Highly Effective Liars Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by [deleted]

There is something darkly fascin­ating about those skilled in verbal legerd­emain. And at least one team of scient­ists, led by Dutch psycho­logist Aldert Vrij , believes that it has identified the precise ingred­ients of "good liars."­ These resear­chers outline the following 18 traits (pdf) that, if ever they were to coalesce in a perfect storm of a single perpet­rator, would strain even seasoned interr­oga­tors’ lie-de­tection abilities:

"­Mac­hia­vel­lia­ns" are pragmatic liars who aren’t fearful or anxious. They are "­sch­eming but not stupid­," explain the authors. "In conver­sat­ions, they tend to dominate, but they also seem relaxed, talented and confid­ent."

Good actors make good liars; receptive audiences encourage confid­ence.

Animated people create favorable first impres­sions, making liars seductive and their expres­sions distra­cting.

Fair or unfair, pretty people are judged as being more honest than unattr­active people

These people can adapt to abrupt changes in the discourse with a convincing sponta­neity.

Prior lying helps people manage familiar emotions, such as guilt and fear, which can “leak” behavi­orally and tip off observers.

Like anything else, believing in yourself is half the battle; you’ve got to believe in your ability to deceive others.

Liars "mask their stark inclin­ation to show the emotional expres­sions they truly feel" by feigning the opposite affect.

Eloquent speakers confound listeners with word play and buy extra time to ponder a plausible answer by giving long-w­inded responses.

This minimizes fabric­ation on the spot, which is vulnerable to detection.

Concealing inform­ation ("I honestly don’t rememb­er") is preferable to a constr­ucted lie because it cannot be discon­firmed.

Saying as little as possible in response to pointed questions makes it all the more difficult to confirm or disconfirm details.

Even meticulous liars can be thrown by the unexpe­cted, so the ability to give original, convin­cing, non-sc­ripted responses comes in handy.

Delays and verbal fillers ("um­s" and "­ahs­") signal deception, so good liars are quick-­witted, thinking fast on their feet.

Intell­igence enables an efficient should­ering of the “cognitive load” imposed by lying, since there are many complex, simult­ane­ously occurring demands associated with monitoring one’s own decept­ive­ness.

Interr­oga­tors’ ears will prick at incons­ist­encies. A good memory allows a liar to remember details without tripping in their own fibs.

Lies that "bend the truth" are generally more convin­cing, and require less cognitive effort, than those that involve fabric­ating an entire story.

The ability to detect suspicion in the listener allows the liar to make the necessary adjust­ments, borrowing from strategies in the preceding skill set.