What is needed to determine if someone is lying?

• A. Ask for corroborating evidence
• B. Establish baseline
• C. Look for facial expressions
• D. Trust your intuition

Answer: (B)

Understanding deception hinges on having a reference point for how a person normally behaves. Establishing a baseline gives you that reference by showing how they typically speak, move, respond, and provide details under neutral or honest conditions. Once you know their usual patterns, you can spot deviations in a current statement that might suggest dishonesty, especially when inconsistencies appear across multiple cues and the details don’t line up with known facts. Relying on facial expressions alone isn’t reliable—people can misread or mask emotions—and intuition is prone to biases. Corroborating evidence matters, but without a baseline, you don’t have a proper frame of reference to judge whether something is unusual for this person.