This article was originally published in i weekend on 26 September 2026.
The second season of The Celebrity Traitors is set to begin next week, with a new crop of famous faces preparing to lie, deceive and torment their fellow players. This year’s all-star line-up includes actors Michael Sheen, Richard E Grant and Bella Ramsey, musicians James Blunt and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, broadcaster Amol Rajan and Love Island host Maya Jama.
Surrounded by suspicion and high-stakes decisions, contestants will constantly watch each other for clues of treachery. But how much can facial expressions, gestures and movements really tell us about a person’s genuine motives?
Adrianne Carter (below), a body language expert with more than 25 years’ experience, decodes how to work out who is telling the truth – and who the Traitors are in our own lives…
Someone insists they’re ‘fine’, but you’re not so sure
“When someone tells you they’re fine and they’re not, they aren’t really lying to you so much as protecting themselves, so I’d look for the places where the body language hasn’t caught up with the words. The smile is often a giveaway, because a genuine smile reaches the eyes and fades slowly, whereas a polite one switches on and off at the mouth. You might also see the lips pressed together, a little one-sided shoulder shrug, or self-soothing such as rubbing an arm or touching the neck.”
Your colleague takes credit for your idea
“You already know the idea was yours, so the question isn’t whether they’re lying but whether they knew what they were doing, because people genuinely forget where an idea came from far more often than we’d like to think. The first second after you challenge them tells you a great deal. Genuine surprise is brief, with the eyebrows lifting and the face opening up, and it’s usually followed by something like: ‘Oh, was it yours?’ Someone who knew is more likely to show a flash of fear or shame, with the gaze dropping and the lips pressing together, before recovering and claiming it was ‘a team effort’.”
Someone gives you too much information
“Over-explaining isn’t proof of deception; honest people who are nervous about not being believed overexplain all the time.
What I’d listen to is the shape of the story. Truthful accounts are a bit messy; they come out of order and include odd little details that don’t matter, whereas a rehearsed story tends to be neat, linear, and told in the same way every time.”
Someone maintains that they weren’t talking about you, but you’re not so sure
“The tell here is very often not in the person you’re talking to, but in the glance they give the other person who was in on the conversation. People check in with each other when they share a secret, and that quick look, sometimes with a suppressed smile or pressed lips, is very hard to control.”
Your friend suddenly changes the subject
“Everybody thinks liars can’t look you in the eye, but people who are lying often hold more eye contact than usual, because they know that’s what we’re watching for. Evasion is far more interesting, and the thing I’d pay attention to is what was said just before the swerve, because that is the topic that made them uncomfortable. Watch for a small shift in the body, such as the feet or torso turning away, or a sudden busyness with a phone.”
Someone keeps contradicting themselves
“Memory isn’t a recording, and honest people contradict themselves on small details all the time. What matters is whether the core of the story shifts, and even more than that, what happens when you point out the inconsistency. An honest person will usually say something like: ‘Oh, now you’ve said that, I’m not sure’ – admitting that uncertainty actually makes them easier to trust. Someone who is lying tends to tighten up, get more certain, or produce a new explanation that fits perfectly.”
Your date seems almost too keen to impress you
“Charm isn’t evidence of honesty; it is evidence of effort. There is nothing wrong with effort on a date, so I’d be looking at whether the interest rather than the charm is genuine. Genuine interest asks you questions and listens to the answers, and you’ll see the feet and body pointed towards you and a smile that comes and goes naturally. When somebody is performing, it’s all transmission and no reception; the stories are about them, and the smile arrives on cue. I’d also watch how they treat the waiter, because charm tends to be switched on for the person who matters and off for everybody else.”
Someone says ‘trust me’
“‘Trust me’ is a request, not evidence, and people who are trustworthy rarely need to say it. A small head shake while saying the words is a lovely example of the body disagreeing with the mouth, as is a one-sided shoulder shrug, which tends to signal that the person is not fully committed to what they are telling you.”
Someone becomes unusually defensive
“Being disbelieved when you are telling the truth is embarrassing, and innocent people often react far more strongly than guilty ones, who might have prepared for the question. Anger shows in narrowed eyes, a tight jaw, and the head coming forward, whereas fear of being caught will show in raised, drawn-together eyebrows and the body pulling back.”
You have a gut feeling
“Your gut instinct is really very fast pattern recognition, so it is useful when you have lots of experience of that person or that situation, but far less reliable with strangers. The Faithfuls so often banish on gut feeling and get it wrong, since what we actually read in someone is certainty rather than honesty. For this reason, I would trust your gut as a prompt to look more closely and then ask yourself exactly what you saw that made you feel that way.”
The calmest person in the room is not necessarily the most honest person
“We tend to read calmness as honesty, but someone who has committed to a story can be far calmer than an innocent person who is anxious about being doubted, and so it is often the nervous Faithful who is banished. If you want to look past the calm, watch whether it moves with the conversation. Genuine calm still reacts, so the face softens, tightens and flickers as things are said, whereas a controlled calm stays almost too still, with less of the natural fidgeting we all do and an expression that doesn’t change even when the conversation turns towards them.”
The pile-on
“Suspicion in a group travels through the body long before it’s spoken, and the Round Table – or its real-life equivalent, whatever that group setting might look like – is the perfect place to see it happen. When a name comes up, watch who looks at whom first, because that glance often shows you where the doubt started and who has already formed an alliance. Meanwhile, the accused will often begin to self-soothe – touching their face or rubbing their hands – which the group reads as guilt when it is really just stress.”
The Celebrity Traitors begins on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One.