Profiler expert Mark T. Hofmann: The spooky look into other people’s heads…

… and how you can learn that, too. Admit it. You also want to know it: is my counterpart lying – or not?

Mark T. Hoffmann is one of the best-known international profilers, criminologists and intelligence analysts. Since the age of nine, he has been preoccupied with the question: How do you read other people? How do you find out the truth?

The unmasking look into other people’s heads.

He looks, one might think, into other people’s heads.

So is Mark T. Hofmann some kind of clairvoyant, an exceptional phenomenon, possibly born with this talent?

Far from it, laughs the Frankfurt native.

Nevertheless, the “dark themes” of the human soul have fascinated him for as long as he can remember. After studying industrial and organizational psychology, it quickly became clear where he was particularly drawn to: white-collar crime, psychopathy and the personality disorder narcissism, which has been highly topical for some years. Mark T. Hofmann specialized in “profiling,” and to this day he spends part of his work conducting scientific interviews with psychopaths and criminals.

How can you tell if someone is lying?

In interviews, he is repeatedly asked how you can tell when someone is lying. Supposedly, body language reveals a lot about how much truth or lie is in a statement. Arms folded in front of the chest are supposed to signal defense, and looking up to the left is supposed to expose a lie. All myths, says Mark T. Hofmann, who not only clears up half-knowledge in his keynotes, but also shows exactly those techniques that really work. How does he know that? Because it’s his job.

After all, it is part of the 32-year-old’s professional routine to hold anonymous conversations with hackers and violent criminals whose deeds have not yet come to public attention. He is in contact with individuals in the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities, where he was trained in profiling and intelligence techniques, and he was part of an official certification program run by the California State Department of Justice. 

In his riveting talks, he shares incredible-seeming stories from his everyday life and explains what’s important when observing body language and facial expressions from a profiler’s perspective. As icing on the cake, he reveals how even non-professionals can use interrogation tactics that bring the truth to light.

This much can be said: the key lies in sophisticated questioning techniques that can be used to quickly find out whether someone is telling the truth or lying.

No hocus-pocus: analysis and observation are the key to profiling.

Mark T Hofmann’s work sometimes seems like magic. The statements he is able to make about his counterparts after just a few minutes are too fantastic and accurate.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with hocus-pocus. Rather, it’s about clear analysis and the ability to put oneself in other people’s shoes. But beware: empathy is not the same as profiling.

In his lectures, criminalist and intelligence analyst Mark T. Hofmann talks about what we can learn about people skills from the FBI, about the background of psychopathy and white-collar crime, about how interrogation tactics support us in negotiations, and about which innovative techniques we can adopt from the CIA.

Sounds exciting? It is.

Mark T. Hofmann is your teacher if you want to finally learn how to unmask liars:inside, psychopaths and narcissists right from the start.