Many people pride themselves on being good judges of character, believing they can easily identify a lie. But research from the University of British Columbia (UBC) suggests that detecting deception is far more difficult than most would think.

New findings from UBC professor Leanne ten Brinke show that there is no single behavior or facial expression that reliably signals when someone is lying.

Her latest study, published in the journal Law and Human Behavior , challenges assumptions about how deception manifests, especially in high-stakes situations.

"Despite the commonplace nature of deception, humans are poor at detecting lies. Accuracy for deception detection by untrained people is estimated at 54 percent," ten Brinke said in a statement.

"But because justice often depends on our

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