Detect Lies by Reading the Eyes
Communication and conversation skills

Overview

• Detect Lies by Reading the Eyes

• Eye Contact

• Dilating Pupils

• Blinking

• Eye Movements

• Clusters

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

Ernest Hemingway

Detect Lies by Reading the Eyes

Most liars avoid making eye contact or deliberately look you straight in the eye and maintain it because they don't want to be seen as hiding something.

Sometimes there is the attempt to hide a lie with a forced smile.
But a false smile looks different from a natural one.
The forehead muscles are active, the cheeks and the jaw move and the nose may wrinkle.
But most importantly a natural smile shows wrinkles around the eyes. And the eyes look squished.
A natural looking smile is difficult to fake.

In moments of tension, pupils dilate.
It can be difficult to observe this in people with dark eyes.

It can be a indicator of a lie if someone is blinking frequently, looking away, looking from side to side or even holding eye contact for too long.

Be very careful with the following striking technique.
It requires experience and the will to constantly calibrate your observation, the other cues and the context.

Our eyes will position themselves according to the thoughts.
By watching the eyes we can often tell what they are thinking and if they are lying.
That is the reason some poker players wear sunglasses to hide their eyes.

There are certain positions of the eyes that can be interpreted.

Eyes in the upper right (1st person upper-left)
When someone moves their eyes up and right it means that they are accessing the visual part of their memory.
In this person's head they are visualizing objects, colors, movements, and other visual information that pertains to your conversation.
 

Eyes to the middle right (1st person left)
Moving the eyes directly to the right is a sign that they are accessing the auditory part of their memory.
The person could be remembering a song, the sound of a voice, or a particular noise.
 

Eyes down and right (1st person down-left)
Someone that is talking to themselves or thinking about what they are about to say next will look down and to the right.
 

Eyes Up and Left (1st person up-right)
Most right-handed people look to the left in an upward direction, that is a sign someone is thinking or visually constructing an image in his mind.
If he looks to the right in an upward direction, he is recalling or visually remembering something that actually happened.
He might be making up a story to cover the real incident.
 

Eyes to the Middle Left (1st person right)
A person looking directly to the left is constructing sounds in their head. They may be imagining what an unheard voice sounds like, or putting together a new melody.
 

Eyes down and left (1st person down-right)
When thinking about their feelings someone will look down and left.
Often when people say "I feel..." they will glance down and left, and you can know they are actually thinking about how they feel.
 

The method of calibrating to eye movements may help you determine if you want to accept their explanation or not, while also taking into account other factors.

These are possible interpretations for most right-handed people and the reverse interpretations are helpful for left-handed people.

Remember not to take this as the entire truth but as one of the cues.
And constantly (re-)calibrate to make sure that's how it is for the person.

Rather than relying on a specific behavior, catching a liar in the act is best done by watching their normal behaviors.
When those behaviors suddenly change, that's when a lie has likely been told.

Beware of interpreting every single little sign you observe.
Resist drawing hastily conclusions based on someone who suddenly starts scratching the neck or touching the nose.
As already mentioned; read the body language in clusters and context.
This will help you to gain insights as to how a person feels.
Learn to include the full range of expressions and movements in your observation.
The human body movement includes the eyes, head, shoulders, lips, eyebrows, neck, legs, arms, fingers, hands and gestures.
The risk of reading your opponent is that you concentrate too much on just one single clue.

Reading the body language may not be 100% accurate all the time.
But by combining all the cues, you'll come up with reliable data supporting your assertions.
There are a lot of aspects to be taken into account to make an educated guess on whether someone is telling the truth or a lie.
Knowledge and training are essential to doing a good job reading body language.

Keywords

Consulting, coaching, truth, liar, lie, honesty, detecting lies, lie detector, management, interview, investigation, investigate, catch, negotiation, learning, business, private life, success

Copyright

© 1998 - 2012 Karsten Noack: Consulting, Coaching & Training Berlin
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Updated 05/10/12 - LBRD