Interesting article in Psychology today:
Here's what to look for if you suspect someone is untruthful, especially your tax or financial advisor. Always trust your gut feeling has been my experience, but here's some things to look for:
- Liars tend to answer questions that were not asked.
- Liars tend to answer a question with a question.
- Liars tend not to make self-corrections to avoid the perception of being unsure about what they are saying.
- Liars tend to feign memory loss by using statements such as “I don’t remember” and “I don’t recall.”
- Liars tend to report what they did not do, rather than reporting what they actually did.
- Liars tend to justify their actions when no justification is necessary.
- Liars tend to not include emotional feelings in their account of events.
- Liars tend to report exact times and dates to prove they could not have committed the offense in question.
- Liars tend to ask for a question to be repeated or clarified.
- Liars tend to express emotions that are not genuine.
- Liars tend to use fewer words to describe events or activities.
- Liars tend to describe weakness and flaws in other people.
- Liars tend to include fewer details when describing events or activities.
- Liars tend to use passive language when describing events or activities.
On the flip side:
- Truthful people often refer to lessons learned from past experiences.
- Truthful people often include mistakes they made.
- Truthful people often include dialogue when describing events.
- Truthful people often report events and activities without exact times and dates.
- Truthful people often report events and activities without a coherent structure.
- Truthful people often report unusual or unexpected events that occurred.
- Truthful people often include sensory information, such as what they smelled when they report events or activities.
As a CPA representing clients, relationships are crucial and we will always represent your best interests and advise you accordingly, sometimes truth is not easy, but its necessary to keep our clients and their interests top of mind,
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/let-their-words-do-the-talking/201712/detecting-deception-is-possible-not-easy
Best wishes in all your endeavors,
Lighthouse