Here is a small experiment I run in my workshops. I ask everyone to raise their dominant hand — your right if you write with the right, your left if you write with the left. Then, with the index finger of that hand, I ask them to draw a cube in the air. What I am really watching is the tail of the cube, that little three-dimensional line you add to give it depth. Which side did it go to — the left of your body, or the right?

The room always splits. Some draw the tail to the left, some to the right. It is a quick, playful indicator, and I want to be honest about that word: indicator, not verdict. No single gesture proves anything on its own. But patterns like this open a useful conversation about who finds deception easy and who simply does not have the wiring for it.

Why bother reading people at all?

When I ask people what lie detection actually gives them, the answers come fast: time and energy. We sit across from people all day — clients, partners, candidates, family — trying to work out what is really going on behind the words. Most of the strain in our relationships comes from not knowing where we stand.

Reading someone well gives you a moment of truth. You note, quietly, whether this person is going to stay consistent with what they are saying. In a sales or consulting room, you can usually tell within ten minutes whether a client is genuinely interested. If the signs are good, you proceed with confidence. If they are not, you have your answer too — you can step away gracefully instead of chasing someone who was never going to commit. That clarity is the whole point. It protects your energy from being spent in the wrong places.

The same skill works in love

I teach this for several settings, and the one people are most surprised by is relationships. Think of the person about to get married, or someone who dates constantly but can never quite settle down. Often there is something off — a mismatch they sense but cannot name. When I sit with such a person, the work is to find out what is going wrong and, more importantly, why. Reading the small signals helps us get to the root instead of repeating the same pattern with a new face.

What these cues really tell you

So how do you read whether someone is comfortable with deception or not? The honest position is this:

  • Cues reveal tendencies and comfort levels, not guilt. A person who draws the tail one way is not branded a liar.
  • One signal means nothing. You look for clusters — several cues pointing the same way — before you trust the reading.
  • Context decides everything. Nerves, culture and personality all shape what the body does.

The cube exercise is a doorway, not a diagnosis. It gets people curious about how much their bodies give away without permission. Once that curiosity is awake, the real learning begins — watching the lip-press, the brow flash, the small self-soothing touch, and asking what each one is trying to tell you.

The aim was never to catch people out. It is to stop wasting yourself on the wrong conversations, the wrong clients, the wrong relationships — and to spend your time where the truth, and the warmth, actually live.