Lying is ugly, yet we do it, often several times a day. We do it for many different reasons: It can be out of consideration, to avoid negative reactions, or for our own gain. Some people also lie to get a
kick , a so-called "duper's delight". But is it possible to detect a liar? Yes, says the expert. But then you have to listen carefully.

In "duper's delight," the person gets a kick out of fooling someone else by adding or improving on a story. The aim is to get applause and attention, and this behavior is established in childhood.

There are different types of lies and there are different types of liars. Perhaps the most notorious is the mythomaniac. But a type of liar that is both more common and harder to detect is liars who get high from being deceived. The intoxication is called ”duper’s delight” – the bluffer’s joy. The term was coined by psychologist Paul Ekman and means that the liar feels pleasure, excitement or schadenfreude if he or she manages to deceive someone. The person gets an inner satisfaction from getting away with a lie or manipulation and then feels smarter than others. Many famous politicians have been identified as typical duper’s delight people, not least the American President Trump. According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first four years as president.

He is, however, in ”good” company with the likes of Britain’s Boris Johnson and Hitler, who have both shown signs of duper’s delight, according to experts. Such a sign is a diffuse smile of satisfaction and a total lack of signs of guilt. Researchers estimate that about 4 to 5 percent of the population belongs to this type of liar.

– In ”duper's delight”, the person gets a kick when they manage to fool someone else by adding or improving a story. The aim is to get applause and attention, and this behavior is already established in childhood, says Pär-Anders Granhag, professor of psychology at the University of Gothenburg, who has researched the psychology of lying for several decades. The person may feel guilty about their lying and think ”I shouldn't have said that” for fear of losing friends. On the other hand, the mythomaniac thinks this way, who lies compulsively and without purpose or meaning. The mythomaniac is less common than those who experience a duper's delight, but also easier to detect. There is no strategy here and they are not worried about being discovered. Behind the mythomaniac there are usually other mental disorders. For example, a psychopath can be a mythomaniac, or vice versa.

– The difference is that the psychopath lies more strategically than the mythomaniac. But neither the mythomaniac nor the psychopath worries about being exposed. They just move on to the next person, says Pär-Anders Granhag. He believes that skilled liars are usually verbal. Listening to what the person says is also usually the best way to expose the lies. That is why his research group at the University of Gothenburg listens to what the liar says and how a story changes when facts are presented.

– Both a liar and a truth-teller have the same goal. They want to be believed, but they take different paths to get there. The liar thinks and plans more, thinks more about what to say to convince others, and tells events in precise chronological order. The truth-teller, on the other hand, gives more detailed accounts than the liar, and it is more common for things to go wrong in true stories. The truth-teller may say: ”We should
actually took my car but it broke down so we took the neighbor's instead”. In a true story, the person can correct details such as ”we went to the movies before dinner” to ”no by the way, it was after dinner”. The liar instead tries to avoid details that risk messing up the story.

“The liar also avoids changing his story spontaneously,” says Pär-Anders Granhag. However, looking for a flickering gaze or nervous posture does not work to expose a liar, he says.
– It is a myth that you can tell if someone is lying just by looking at body language and behavior. 40 years of research shows that it doesn't work. A person may seem nervous out of fear of not being believed, and not because they are lying. Given that lying is so common, one might wonder if we humans even have
Lying is in our DNA. Pär-Anders Granhag believes so:
– Lying was necessary for our survival during evolution. If a person from a foreign group asked for the best hunting ground and you pointed in the wrong direction, you yourself gained an advantage. Then lying was a way to help your own group survive against other groups, he explains. Another example of a justified lie is
if a threatening person with a gun runs into a school and asks ”where are the students?”

– If the respondent lies, they may save lives and in such situations the lie is justified, even though we think it is ugly to lie. Lies can also be justified when we use them to protect other people's lives.
emotions. They can also be a sign that we are socially competent.

– We don't appreciate brutally honest people who say "you look miserable" to someone who has just had a haircut. We want people to be balancedly honest. Another occasion when we often lie is during job interviews. As many as 80 percent would consider withholding the truth then, research shows.

– If the interviewee is asked ”is there anything else I need to know about you?” at the end of the interview, it is unlikely that the person will admit that they shoplift from time to time. And it is a lie to withhold information that you know would be essential, concludes Pär-Anders Granhag.