Incongruence

So,  there has been a conversation that has come up with friends several times in the last few months.

Mixed signals.  What to do when one is faced with words that do not jibe with actions.  There seem to be two types of occurrence to this.  The positive word and the negative action being one with the reverse being the other.

The first is easy.  Always assume that positive words that are contradicted by actions consistently are lies.  Act accordingly.

The second is more difficult as we are asked to decipher some unknown code.  We hear the negative consistently, but the actions don't quite fit, and we are expected to try and "interpret" correctly what the actions MEAN.  This is "Danger Will Robinson."  Anything from this point that we choose to interpret could/most likely is tainted.  Tainted with our own filters of how we would respond, how we would think and sometimes just flat out wishful thinking. 

So, when faced with "mixed signals," the safest bet is to believe everything that is said, as being a mind reader, cryptic cipher decoder, interpreter is generally not in your job description.  And to believe anything else would be to call the person a liar.