Cover Story: Lying Makes The World Go Around
Image consultant Alisa Lohitnavy has carved her career out of a passion for the study of truthfulness
‘Would you like anything to drink?” asked a young waitress. I shook my head and declined her offer. Yet, the lady sitting across from me insisted on ordering me a glass of cold water.
Alisa Lohitnavy gave me a knowing smile while the waitress was fetching water for us. We sank comfortably into our armchairs. We then started to talk.
“Statistics have shown that, in a fifteen-minute conversation, we would have already told three lies to others,” Alisa said.
From “No, I’m not hungry” when you’re actually starving to “I’m on my way” when you’re still applying mascara in front of the mirror, we tell each other white lies — untrue words that harm no one — on a regular basis. We lie to seem polite, to fit into society and to create friendship.
The waitress came back with two bottles for us. Apparently, when I said I didn’t want any water, I was lying to the expert in lie detection herself.
Alisa is an image consultant and a lie detection expert. Born in Germany, she is a live definition of a jet-setter, having worked and lived in different cities around the world. She travels extensively. Her résumé packs a long list of certification from various international institutes. Same goes with her work experience. Air hostess? Check. Headhunter? Check. Guest lecturer? Check. She’s been working with different organisations, coaching their staff with workshops on credibility assessment — an art we commonly refer to as lie detection.
Her interest in this area grew after the tragic incidents of 9/11. As much as she was frightened by the event, Alisa was equally puzzled. She thought back to her days as a flight attendant, trying to retrace the steps that would take the terrorists onto the planes.
Then, she realised one thing. It all started with lying. The terrorists had to fool everyone — the immigration staff, airport security and others — in order to board the planes.
“I wanted to know more about what people do when they lie, as well as how to detect it,” said Alisa.
She began studying how to evaluate truthfulness with American psychologist Paul Ekman, whom she called a guru in lie detection. Her pursuit was relentless and it has led her to success. Aside from being the founder of Image Matters Asia, a company focusing on image consulting, Alisa later formed Executive Presence, a company dealing with lie detection and body language.
Lying, Alisa believes, is something we’ve been taught since young by none other than our very own parents. It began with simple questions like “Do you like this?”. Or “Is auntie looking pretty today?”. Even if what we want to say is a “no”, what comes out of our mouth is “yes”. We’ve been groomed to lie.
We use different channels to communicate: facial expressions, body language, our voice, verbal styles and verbal content. When they don’t go in sync, it means the person is trying to hide something, said Alisa.
As humans are all different, no one really lies in the same way. Lie detection is sometimes about one’s own instinct. But even if instinct cannot be taught, principles are at least passed on.