By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Accusations of lying are lobbed regularly in this political season but that’s certainly not the only place where shading the truth occurs.

When Gregory Hartley learned to spot liars, the consequences were life and death.

As an Army interrogator in Iraq, he couldn’t lug a polygraph machine into the field, so he trained himself to watch for the subtle physical and spoken cues that indicate a lie.

Marryann Karinch is co-author of How to Spot a Liar.

“We are pretty good at reading body language and even detecting liars when we’re kids. We forget a lot because we have layers of culture on top of us and training from our parents and all the other people who mentor us, so they mute some of our natural abilities to read people,” Karinch explains.

Karinch insists that knowing how to spot liars won’t leave you disappointed with your family and friends, but actually give you a way to begin to improve your relationships.