PDF Summary:Six-Minute X-Ray, by Chase Hughes

Have you ever wished you could learn everything about someone simply by looking at them? In Six-Minute X-Ray, behavior analyst Chase Hughes argues that you can. His Six-Minute X-Ray (SMX) system allows you to rapidly gain deep insight into who someone really is, based on their behavior, speech, and mannerisms. Developed from his military intelligence experience and a decade of research, his system allows a quick assessment of a person’s needs, fears, and feelings—information you can use to improve rapport and influence others in both professional and personal contexts. Additionally, the SMX system can help you suss out whether someone is lying to you.

In our guide, we’ll explain how to use Hughes’s techniques to identify someone’s needs and decision-making style, prompt people to share more information than they normally would, and detect verbal and physical indications of deception. In our commentary, we’ll add research to support and supplement Hughes’s ideas, along with advice and opinions from other experts on profiling and reading people.

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(Shortform note: Other experts affirm Hughes’s argument that it’s easier to connect with and influence someone if you can give them the impression that you share certain traits. In Pre-Suasion, Robert Cialdini explains that people are more inclined to agree with people they find likable—and that they’re predisposed to like people who are similar to them. Conveying that you use the same decision style as someone communicates a powerful similarity that quickly boosts your likability in their eyes.)

Eliciting Important Information

As we’ve seen, a behavior profile (based on the person’s apparent social needs and decision-making style) can be an invaluable tool in understanding, relating to, and influencing someone. However, there may be times when you need even more information from someone—which they may not be eager to share. In these cases, Hughes explains, you’ll have to do some strategic prompting.

According to Hughes, the key to prompting others to share information is to make them feel like they’ve offered it willingly. You’ll get more information if your conversation feels natural than if it feels like an interrogation. Additionally, information-sharing tends to compound: The more information you obtain, the more of a connection the other person will feel with you, and the more that person will continue to open up.

Why People Share More If They Feel They’re Doing It Willingly

The reason people will share more if they feel they’re doing so willingly may relate to the psychological concept of the self-determination theory. This theory posits that people have a basic need for autonomy, or feeling in control of their actions. If people feel like they’re in control of the situation, they may feel more intrinsically motivated to share information—whereas, when they feel out of control, they’ll need to be motivated by extrinsic factors like receiving a reward or avoiding a punishment.

Additionally, people sometimes feel threatened when they’re questioned, which can make them less forthcoming—particularly with incriminating information. Because of their focus on creating a natural conversation based on connection, Hughes’s techniques may reduce the perceived threat or sense of interrogation in your interaction, which can get you more information.

In this section, we’ll explain how Hughes shares four ways Hughes says you can prompt others to share more information than they normally would: leading statements, flattery, complaint baiting, and mirroring their speech. You can use your behavior profile to enhance these techniques, or you can use them on their own if you haven’t yet formed your behavior profile.

Technique #1: Leading Statements

According to Hughes, you can use leading statements to prod someone to share information you’re interested in. These are statements meant to provoke a response from the other person on a topic you’ve subtly introduced. For example, if you’re speaking to your child’s new teacher and want to get a sense of how much homework they assign, you could say, “I bet you spend a lot of time grading students’ homework.” If they respond with, “Yes, it takes about two hours each day to get through it all,” then you know they assign a lot of homework. Alternatively, if they say, “Not really, I spend more time grading in-class work,” then you can assume this teacher assigns less homework.

By doing this instead of directly asking “Do you assign a lot of homework?” the teacher won’t feel interrogated or get defensive. Instead, they’ll feel a connection with you because you made an empathetic statement that highlighted their hard work.

(Shortform note: You may also want to ask questions that provoke a response from the other person. In Spy the Lie, the authors recommend asking loaded questions to get more information from someone you’re talking to. Loaded questions beg a response beyond a simple “yes” or “no.” For example, you might say to your child’s teacher, “It seems like middle schoolers these days have more homework than I did when I was a kid—why is that?”.)

Technique #2: Flattery

When receiving compliments, most people feel naturally inclined to deflect them in order to appear modest. According to Hughes, the details of the deflection can reveal significant information. For example, if you attend a musical performance and speak to the performer afterward, you might say, “That was incredible, you’re clearly very talented.” They’re likely to respond with modesty: “Oh no, I’m lucky because my parents were able to get me private lessons as a child.” This tells you multiple pieces of information: This person has been working on their craft for years and they’re not self-taught, and it even gives you a glimpse into their family’s socioeconomic status.

(Shortform note: Experts suggest that the reason we feel the need to deflect compliments is because they catch us by surprise, and surprise is an uncomfortable sensation that makes us feel emotionally vulnerable and not in control. By deflecting the compliment, we reestablish control and lessen that discomfort. People with low-self esteem may also find that the compliment conflicts with their current views of themselves, which can cause cognitive dissonance—an inconsistency between their beliefs (a negative self-view) and the world around them (someone else’s positive view of them). Cognitive dissonance is another uncomfortable feeling that we have an instinctual need to get rid of by rejecting what triggered it.)

Technique #3: Complaint Baiting

According to Hughes, complaining or venting feels freeing. This feeling of freedom can cause someone to get carried away, often disclosing more information (or more sensitive information) than they usually would—thus establishing a connection with you. To bait someone into complaining, casually comment on a negative aspect of something they experience that’s related to the information you want from them.

For example, imagine you’re a therapist working with a child who’s struggling with their parents’ divorce, but is reluctant to open up. When you ask them about school, they roll their eyes. Seizing on that, you say, “It must be frustrating to focus on your schoolwork while things are so difficult at home.” They respond, “Yeah, especially my English class. I’m supposed to spend an hour every day at home reading, but my dad moving out is so distracting I can’t concentrate.” You’ve now made a connection with this client and have opened the door to further conversation.

(Shortform note: While someone’s complaints can be very telling, habitual complaining can be harmful. Complaining can help us feel validated and connected to others, but it also may lead to rumination, constant complaining, or playing the victim. This can push others away from you and create a negative environment. Thus, if you’re trying to elicit information from an employee or someone you interact with regularly, prompting complaints frequently may backfire in the long run by damaging team morale or rapport.)

Technique #4: Speech Mirroring

Hughes explains that you can elicit information by reflecting what someone has said back to them. Reflecting someone’s ideas makes them feel seen and heard, which creates a bond with them and prompts them to share more. One way you can do this is by simply repeating the last three words of their statement.

For example, you’re at a community event, and you overhear a stranger remark, "I love the annual sci-fi convention here, I never miss it." You mirror, "Never miss it?" The stranger, feeling acknowledged, opens up with enthusiasm: "Yeah, the speakers are always fantastic! And between you and me, I heard George Lucas is doing a panel this year." Your simple, mirrored reply has now sparked an engaging conversation about a shared passion, as well as some insight into a possible special guest.

Hughes notes that for best results, mirror the general idea of what the other person has said to you and then follow it up with a leading statement. For example, imagine you’re at a speed dating event and want to quickly learn as much as you can about the other person’s career and interests before it’s time to switch dates. They mention that they’re a special needs teacher who’s worked in the local school system for seven years, so you say, “Special needs? That sounds like a rewarding job.” This combination of mirroring and a leading statement will prompt your date to share a ton of information.

Why Mirroring Works and Additional Tips

While Hughes focuses on making a conscious effort to mirror others, research shows that mirroring happens automatically as well. This is a result of the mirror neuron system in our brains, which experts say evolved to help us better understand each other and form closer bonds. In other words, we’re wired to feel good about mirroring—which is likely why it helps so much with connection, communication, and conflict resolution.

Other experts provide additional tips for mirroring techniques: In How to Talk to Anyone, Leil Lowndes explains that you can further utilize mirroring by matching someone’s mood, using supportive statements like “I see what you mean,” and using words that imply friendship like “we” and “us.” You could also combine Lowndes’s supportive statements with Hughes’s leading statements—for example, “I understand how you feel, I can only imagine how rewarding that job must be”—to enhance the empathetic bond you’re aiming to create.

Reading Into Behaviors and Speech

So far we’ve seen how you can observe someone’s behavior and mannerisms to develop a profile of their behavior, and how you can use certain techniques to draw information from them that they may not otherwise share. In this section, we’ll look at how you can read someone’s behavior and speech to detect stress—and potentially, signs of deception.

Physical Indicators: Detecting Stress

Despite popular belief, it’s impossible to tell when someone’s lying based on their behavior and body language. However, Hughes explains, people tend to feel very stressed when they’re lying—so monitoring someone’s behavior for signs of stress can help you determine whether they may be lying.

(Shortform note: Not everyone displays signs of stress when lying. Some people with psychopathy show lower levels of stress when engaging in activities like lying, manipulation, and committing crimes. This can make it harder to tell if they’re being deceptive, and Hughes’s techniques may not apply as well to such individuals.)

Before we get into the signs, Hughes warns that the most important part of monitoring these signs is to notice change in someone’s behavior. Someone might display a stress-associated behavior, but if they display that behavior the entire time you’re interacting with them, you can’t accurately label the behavior as a sign of stress. However, if their behavior changes at some point in the interaction, you can deduce that their stress level has increased as a result of something that just happened in the conversation.

We’ll look at three physical signs of stress that Hughes discusses: increased blink rate, closing or extending the fingers, and facial touching.

(Shortform note: Not every increase in stress during a conversation indicates lying. Research shows that simply being accused of doing something wrong increases stress signals (though this is less so for innocent people than for guilty people). Additionally, being falsely accused of something actually increases anger-related stress signals in innocent people, which can make others view them as guilty.)

Physical Indicator #1: Increased Blink Rate

According to Hughes, paying attention to how quickly someone blinks can tell you about how much stress they may be feeling. Generally, people blink around nine times per minute. However, people blink more frequently when they’re stressed. When you first start talking to someone, take note of how frequently they blink—fast, slow, or somewhere in between. If at any point in the conversation, you see their blink rate speed up, that’s likely a sign of stress. Conversely, if their blink rate noticeably slows, that’s a sign that they’re feeling relaxed.

(Shortform note: Research shows that people also blink more when their minds are wandering, meaning it’s not always an indicator of stress. If the person you’re talking to starts to blink more after you ask them a question, it may be because they need to think for a moment before answering. To get a better idea of why they’re blinking faster, pay attention to whether their blink rate slows again when they return their attention to you to provide the answer.)

Physical Indicator #2: Closing or Extending the Fingers

Hughes explains that watching people’s fingers can also give a strong indication of whether or not they’re feeling stressed. When people feel stressed, they often curl their fingers inward as if they’re going to make a fist. This movement is usually very slight; a person probably won’t clench their whole fist when a topic makes them uncomfortable, but you may be able to notice a minor inward twitch. On the other hand, extending the fingers is a sign of comfort and relaxation.

(Shortform note: You may be able to notice people closing or extending their fingers when even they aren’t aware of it. Research suggests that, because our bodies have evolved to feel our movements rather than see them, we’re often unaware of what our bodies and movements look like to others. Someone who’s lying may be so focused on the story they’re presenting that they don’t notice the ways their body signals their deception.)

Physical Indicator #3: Facial Touching

According to Hughes, people often touch their faces or cover their mouths when they’re feeling stressed. This is an instinctive response we frequently see in children—for example, if they’ve just said something mean to another child and then they realize their parents overheard it. This behavior is a sign of stress in adults as well.

(Shortform note: Experts suggest that the reason we touch our faces when stressed is because it’s a highly efficient self-soothing mechanism. The face has a high concentration of nerve endings that are very close to the brain, so stimulating them provides quick relief from stress and can release feel-good chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin.)

Speech Indicators: Detecting Stress and Deception

Again, physical indicators of stress may indicate deception, or they may simply signal stress or have other causes. Signs of stress in someone's speech, however, are much stronger indicators of deception.

(Shortform note: Research supports Hughes’s assertion that verbal indicators are more reliable than nonverbal cues in detecting deception. One study noted that observers’ ability to detect lies based on nonverbal cues is only slightly better than their ability to do so purely by chance—and their accuracy improved when they could observe verbal content as well. Verbal cues are not only more reliable and accurate in detecting deception, but experts note that certain interview styles and protocols can make it easier to detect verbal indicators of deceit, showing promise in lie detection techniques that rely on verbal cues.)

Hughes describes many signs to look for in someone’s speech, but we’ll focus on these four: hesitation, changing speed and pitch, reversing a question, and attaching caveats to statements.

Speech Indicator #1: Hesitation

According to Hughes, if you ask someone a question and they take a long pause before responding, they may be stalling for time to think of a lie. This also applies when someone repeats your whole question back to you. For example, if you asked your employee “Why were you so late turning in this project?” and they say “Why was I so late turning in this project? Well…” before answering, they might be thinking up a lie.

Speech Indicator #2: Changing Speed and Pitch

Hughes says that people’s voices tend to get higher and their speech faster when they’re lying, so pay attention to whether someone’s speech patterns change as they speak.

Speech Indicator #3: Reversing a Question

Hughes explains that another way people often hide deception is to reverse a question that’s asked of them. For example, if you suspect your spouse is cheating on you, you might ask them, “Have you ever thought about being with someone else?” If they defensively respond, “Have you ever thought about being with someone else?” they may be withholding something important from you.

(Shortform note: A reversed question often comes across as confrontational, like in the example above. The authors of Spy the Lie consider confrontational or aggressive responses to questions suspicious because they’re likely attempts to annoy or scare you into backing off.)

Speech Indicator #4: Caveats for Excluding Details

People may include caveats in their statements that allow them to omit certain details without explicitly lying. Examples of these caveats include, “If I remember correctly,” “As far as I know,” “If memory serves,” and similar statements. The context of these statements is important. If you ask someone if they’ve ever committed a murder, they shouldn’t need to search their memory for that information. If they preface their response with “As far as I can remember,” you may want to avoid spending time alone with that person!

The Five-Second Rule, Clusters, and Additional Signs of Deception

Other experts suggest that reading people may not be as simple as just generally watching for these indicators. In Spy the Lie, the authors note that the human brain can’t closely monitor and analyze every single thing someone says and does throughout an entire conversation. To avoid overwhelming your brain, they recommend 1) using the five-second rule and 2) looking for clusters of stress indicators.

To use the five-second rule, focus on the five seconds after you’ve asked someone a question. This ensures that their behaviors are in direct response to the question and not related to other stimuli. Look for both verbal and physical indicators during this interval—and once five seconds have gone by, if you haven’t seen a sign of deception, assume that any further indicators are unrelated to your question.

The authors also recommend watching for clusters of stress indicators: when someone shows two or more signs of deception in their response. Again, at least the first sign of deception must occur in that five-second window. If you see one sign of deception in the first five seconds, a second sign of deception outside that window counts as part of the cluster. If you see multiple signs of deception that begin after the five-second window, don’t consider them related to your question.

The authors also highlight many of the same signals of deception as Hughes: For example, they concur that facial touching and hesitating before answering are potential indicators of lying. They add other indicators that Hughes doesn’t mention:

• Clearing one’s throat before answering (though they emphasize that clearing one’s throat after answering is not a sign of deception)

• Being overly specific in their responses

• Making oaths (like “I swear on God,” or “I swear on my family’s lives”)

• Complaining about procedure (like saying, “This is taking too long!”)

• Being overly polite

• Being overly concerned about minor events, or being less concerned than they should be about major events

Looking for these signs, in addition to those Hughes describes, can help you better identify when someone may be lying to you.