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By Skylar Khan
In their book ‘The Day America Told the Truth,’ James Patterson and Peter Kim report that 91 percent of Americans lie regularly.
The authors continue to identify the number of specific groups being lied to, 86 percent of the people lie to their parents, 75 percent of the people lie to their friends, 73 percent of the people lie to their siblings, 69 percent of the people lie to their lovers, 61 percent of the people lie to their boss and 59 percent of the people lie to their children.
These numbers are higher than one would expect, to say the least. It raises the question whether, and to what extent, values like truth and integrity are still relevant.
The general public’s attitude appears to be one of forgiveness toward lies from professionals, politicians, celebrities, students and anyone else for that matter, indicating to us that wrongful statements have become the norm rather than the exception.
Perhaps the root cause of this development is the fact that many citizens have lost touch with their community and/or human interaction. Many people now find their ‘friends’ on sites like Facebook when, in reality, they have no true friends to share a cup of coffee with or whom they can join for a walk.
This fosters an attitude of taking care of themselves instead of being concerned about the welfare of others.
When addressing the subject of honesty in a handwriting specimen through the eyes of a Graphologist, we would first of all look at global factors like form, rhythm, spontaneity, style and clarity in the writing.
In addition, special attention would be given to communication letters such as a, o, g and d to ascertain whether the characters are penned without loops or hooks inside the ovals, see below.
The trait of diplomacy represents the art of telling you bad news in a pleasant manner. Diplomacy is considered to be an asset in well-developed writing, and a liability in underdeveloped poor-form writing. The words gradually become smaller toward the end, as seen in the signature below.
A reductive to honesty would be the trait of ‘evasiveness.’ Evasiveness is observed as a small initial hook inside oval letters, as seen in the second a and inside the letter q below:
Another form of dishonesty would be self-deceit. Faced with an unhappy situation, a person may unconsciously alter reality by telling themselves that things are really not as bad as they appear. The easiest person to deceive is oneself.
The trait of self-deceit has been found in the writings of highly skilled and successful individuals. Graphic expression of self-deceit is an initial loop on the left, inside oval letters such as a, d, g and o. See below:
Deliberate deceit, or outright lies, are seen in a double loop inside these same oval letters. Below, please note letters a and o with overlapping loops inside the oval.
Readers are cautioned not to be hasty in jumping to conclusions when seeing this trait in a friend’s handwriting. Someone may be deliberately covering up a sensitive issue that they are currently dealing with.
Once the problem has been resolved, the ovals may revert back to being clean. The same applies to children’s writing as well.
If the above ‘liar’ loops are coupled with ‘diplomacy’ however, you can be assured that the person is a calculating manipulator.
Habitual liars are not bothered by ethics or conscience and therefore loops would not necessarily be found in their handwriting.
Sometimes it is important to read between the lines and to observe unusual signs in a writing specimen. For example, if certain letters drop below the baseline or jump into the upper zone where they do not belong, it would be a red flag. Unusual spacing can be another indicator of behavioral problems.
No trait stands alone, and the whole document needs to be examined in order to arrive at an accurate personality profile.
As far as truth is concerned, former governor of Illinois and ambassador to the United Nations sums it up best with his statement:
“You will find that the truth is often unpopular if the contest between agreeable fancy and the disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news.” –Adlai Stevenson
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