Science of lying comes down to timing, but we can’t always trust that

“It seems people believe the delay is used to suppress the instinctive and truthful initial response, while also fabricating a more desirable response,” Dr Wang said.

He said a good example would be where someone asked their friend to give their opinion on their cooking. The difference between immediate praise and a small delay before the same praise would often trigger an “insincere” judgment in the observer.

Dr Wang said most humans were attuned to a range of cues, some obvious and others subtle, which could indicate whether another human was lying to them – from volume and pitch of voice to facial expression and body language.

The researchers wanted to zero in on the time it took to reply to a question as a measure of whether…