Hesitation Equals Dishonesty/Playing With

Basic Trope: Pausing before speaking means that you're lying.
 * Straight: Alice asks Bob a question. Bob pauses before responding with a lie.
 * Exaggerated: Hesitating for even the slightest fraction of a second is a sure sign that somebody is lying.
 * Justified: Bob needs some extra time to think up a lie and this is a tell.
 * Inverted: Bob is a Consummate Liar who never hesitates before telling another lie.
 * Bob hesitates before revealing an Awful Truth.
 * Alice thinks Bob is lying becuase he didn't pause - ergo, it sounded rehearsed.
 * Subverted: Alice takes Bob's pause to be this in an interrogation and badgers him on it. Bob is not only innocent but he has a neurological condition and Alice ends up losing her job for her insensitivity to the disabled.
 * Double Subverted: While Bob may not have been behind it directly he pulled the strings.
 * Parodied: The pause is absurdly long, Bob looks around the room, desperately coming up with a lie. Alice goes and gets a cup of coffee and Bob still hasn't though of it yet. He then comes out with a Blatant Lies.
 * Deconstructed: Alice automatically assumes that this is the case and accuses anyone who pauses before speaking of lying. This poisons her relationship with Bob, who is already somewhat introverted; every time he pauses to collect his thoughts, she gets upset and calls him a liar. To make matters worse, word gets around, leading to poor Bob getting a terrible reputation.
 * Reconstructed: When speaking about her stressful breakup with Bob, she hesitates before explaining how it wasn't really her fault, even though deep down, she knows it was.
 * Zig Zagged: While Bob is capable of lying without so much as blinking, whenever he says something the audience already knows is a lie, he noticeably pauses.
 * Averted: Pausing before speaking is merely used when an emotional bombshell is dropped. It is a natural consequence of preparing oneself.
 * Enforced: ???
 * Lampshaded: ???
 * Invoked: Alice's best friend Donna tells her "Just come right out and ask him! If he has to think about it, you'll know he's lying through his teeth!"
 * Exploited: Charlie overhears the conversation, and plays on Alice's fears by hinting to her that the fact Bob paused before answering may mean he wasn't being entirely truthful...
 * Defied: ???
 * Discussed: ???
 * Conversed: ???
 * Played For Laughs: Bob leaves spaces wide enough to drive a truck through while telling a Blatant Lie... which Alice immediately accepts.
 * Played For Drama: Alice already knows the truth, but asks Bob anyway as a Secret Test of Character. His brief hesitation draws out the drama before he actually lies, much to Alice's disappointment.

Back to Hesitation Equals Dishonesty.