The site Mind Control Techniques, Covert Hypnosis, and Persuasion has an interesting article: Your Eyes Don't Lie -- Reading Thoughts By Eye Movements.
The article is based on the concept of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), and states that people's eyes will go in certain directions if their thoughts are in specific categories associated with those eye movements. To wit:
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Eye contact denotes interest. Brief eye contact denotes nervousness or some disinterest. Prolonged eye contact may denote an attempt at intimidation.
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Eyes looking straight up may denote contempt or annoyance, unless the conversation is religious in nature.
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Eyes looking to the left suggest that someone is imagining what something sounds like.
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Eyes looking to the right suggest that someone is recalling what something sounds like.
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Eyes looking up and to the left mean that someone is imagining a picture.
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Eyes looking up and to the right mean that someone is trying to recall an image.
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Eyes looking down and to the left mean someone is thinking about their emotions.
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Eyes looking down and to the right denote an "internal dialogue" of some kind, whether it's the recollection of a past conversation or an internal debate about what to say next.
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The directions may be the opposite for some people, but they should be consistently so for the person concerned.
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To see if someone is lying, establish a "baseline" for them by asking questions you know they won't respond to with a lie; observe what they do when you know they're telling the
truth.
I'm not going to lie to you: I think there are problems with this information. If you're curious, please join me after the break.
As I said a while back, the problem with these "liar cues" is that sometimes they're indicating something other than falseness. The comments to the article may be helpful, in that several readers suggest that it has no scientific basis and that internal consistency is the real key to spotting lies. There is disagreement about the effectiveness of many aspects of Neuro-linguistic Programming, even within the NLP community, though some elements have been shown to be effective.
Because so many people believe many common myths about lie-spotting, articles like this often make it possible for liars to become better at what they do: no, the person making eye contact with you and nodding is not necessarily listening as intently as you might believe (the author of the article admits that eye contact can be meaningless and never states that it indicates truthfulness, only interest).
On the other hand, I could see this information being useful to parents who have a kid who's a habitual, not-very-accomplished fibber; the article's author positions it as something relevant to poker players. (Although the photo may suggest otherwise, it is not useful with regard to your cat. If he or she is making eye contact, it is probably because you have tuna on the bridge of your nose.)
Ultimately, it's probably not a good idea to make any major life decisions based on something you read on a hypnosis site on the Internet. Or a do-it-yourself blog, for that matter.
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Reader comments (Page 2 of 2)
Lindy. . . right on!
ReplyThese are the absolute basics of the eye scanning patterns utilized in NLP. And it works, but there is enough information left out that it gives an ok idea about reading liars, but therre is so much more to it. Breating patterns have to be watched, in fact, in nlp, you tend to watch the entire phisiology of the person. Of course there are millions of clues to what a person is thinking at any given moment, it would be impossible to WATCH for every singal signal, but like any learned behaviour, when you learn the techniques of nlp, you learn to read the most important signals unconsciously. I'll watch a persons eyes for eye scanning patterns....but every other movement and observation is made from what I pick up in my peripheral vision. More information is picked up and stored in memory from peripheral vision, than from direct vision. If you don't believe that, then study martial arts. In a competition or fight, watching their fists will slow your reaction to block. However if you watch your opponents eyes, you'll not only see the punch coming quicker.....you'll actually SEE the moment their muscles tense to throw the punch. So, this is solid information, but very, very incomplete.
ReplyM. E. Willams thankz for the E-mail, Hey to you also. I'm so flattered a
Replyperson in your position took the time to Hey at me. I feel special.
Thankz again..Jeannie
II rarely look at a person when I talk, only sometimes to see how they are reacting. I find it distracting to look at someone and I lose focus on what I'm talking about. When other people are talking and look me right in the eyes, I do get nervous and look away. And while thinking my eyes could be in any direction, because I have weak eye muscles and they tend to get tired. I guess it's in the eyes of the beholder.
ReplyNot everyone who avoids or breaks eye contact is lying. Some of us have social anxiety and it's difficult to maintain eye contact, it's just really uncomfortable.
ReplyThis generally only applies to strangers or acquaintances--when in close relationships the social anxiety is minimized, so lack of eye contact may be a signal of lying in that case.
M. E. Williams if you have any other articals in print or in process, I'd love to read them. Jeannie
ReplyGood article. The list is great as general tips, as long as you keep the info at the bottom in mind. :D
ReplyDoes this take into account someones level of shyness, or visual challenges? I know for myself I cannot look into someones eyes for long periods because my eye site gets fuzzy and pressure builds. Often lighting in a room has a huge effect on my vision.
ReplyThe article I linked to and summarized does *not* truly take those things into account, which is one reason that I was skeptical of it... there are so many credible reasons why someone might not make or maintain eye contact. Shyness, autism, focusing problems... the list goes on.
I actually think this information is very useful, if you can remember what it all means. My Mother was the original "mind control" expert and she kept it very simple. She told us she could tell if we were lying by looking into our eyes. Of course, when we were lying, we looked down at the ground, so she couldn't "see into our eyes", and we were amazed that she ALWAYS knew that we were lying!
ReplyThere is more to reading a person than their eyes, body language, tone of voice, and how you interact with the above. My mother always had that knowing look that said: you know, I know. Then my son said the same to me. He said, but how can you tell? I told him, much to his infuriation; you'll know when you're a parent if you pay attention. Now he knows.
ReplyI taught school for over 30 years. Ask a teacher how to spot a liar. Nothing has changed and neither have those people.
3rd row 4th seat; his gramma died 4 times in the same year. I told him I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm going to send your Mom a sympathy card, those 4 losses must have really made her sad. Gotcha!
Yeah, I think "Most people are hilariously bad casual liars," may be the best advice of all. A lot of people say that consistency is more important than visual cues that can be a lot more difficult to interpret correctly.
You can always find our articles by clicking on our names, both at
Replythe top of a post and on the little "leaderboard" thing to the right
that shows who's been posting the most lately.
fsfsI don't look people in the eye when speaking to them if they are ugly.
Reply1-10-2008 @ 10:13AM
ReplyLindy said...
You know something, aerospacemajor? People also used to not allow women to vote.