{"id":6351,"date":"2014-01-15T16:27:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T16:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/howto\/?p=6351"},"modified":"2020-08-31T11:25:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T11:25:23","slug":"spot-liar-looking-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/life\/spot-liar-looking-eyes","title":{"rendered":"How to spot a liar by looking at their eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psychologists believe there are a number of ways you can tell if someone is telling a lie. A fake smile that only involves the mouth, a change of pitch in the vocal tone, and touching the mouth or nose are all signs that someone might not be telling the truth. Most people, however, believe that the most effective way to tell if someone is lying is to look at their eyes.<\/p>\n

But can we really tell whether someone is trying to deceive us by simply watching what their eyes do, or are these popular theories nothing more than old wives\u2019 tales? These are a few of the ways people think they can tell if someone is lying, and the science that proves whether those ideas are fact or fiction.<\/p>

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Liars blink more<\/h2>\n

Scientists reporting in the Journal of Non-verbal Behaviour found that a liar\u2019s blinking rate differed to people telling the truth. A liar\u2019s blink rate slows down when answering a question, but speeds up to around 8 times the normal rate after they\u2019ve told the lie.<\/p>\n

However, just because someone starts blinking quickly doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019re lying \u2013 for a start, they might just feel under pressure if you\u2019re interrogating them! Furthermore they might just have a medical condition that causes them to drink excessively, such as dry eye.<\/p>\n

Dilation<\/h2>\n

Ever wondered why some professional poker players wear sunglasses at the table? It\u2019s not because they\u2019re trying to look super cool, and it\u2019s certainly not to protect their eyes from the sun \u2013 it\u2019s because when you lie (or bluff in the case of poker players) your pupils dilate. Even the most skilful poker player would have trouble trying to stop their pupils from dilating, so if you see the black of someone\u2019s eyes getting larger it could be because they\u2019re concentrating on coming up with a believable lie \u2013 or because they don\u2019t want you to know they have a straight flush.<\/p>

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However, being able to spot these changes might be more difficult than you think, as \u2018the pupil response to cognitive and emotional events\u2019 is \u2018generally only a change of about half a millimetre, which is usually too small for the naked eye to notice!<\/p>\n

Eye contact<\/h2>\n

\u2018Look me in the eye and tell me you don\u2019t love me,\u2019 is a popular line used by lazy, unimaginative scriptwriters. While there\u2019s a belief in popular culture that liars can\u2019t maintain eye contact, it\u2019s not based in any kind of scientific evidence. Six studies found that lying had no effect on \u2018gaze aversion\u2019 (which is a fancy way of saying not being able to hold eye contact to you and me).<\/span><\/p>\n

There is an exception to this rule however \u2013 if a child tells you a lie they\u2019ll probably be unable to look you in the face because of their guilt. However, as kids get older and realise that society considers lack of eye contact a tell-tale sign of a lie they learn to keep hold of someone\u2019s gaze. This is why people may actually overcompensate when telling a lie by holding eye contact more firmly than usual.<\/p>\n

Eye direction<\/h2>\n

According to neuro-linguisting programming (a type of psychotherapy devised by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in America in the 1970s) when right-handed people make up lies they tend to look up and to the right, whereas if they are recalling a real memory they look up and to the left.<\/p>\n

However, scientists from Edinburgh and Hertfordshire University conducted a study in 2012 that showed this theory, which has since become a commonly held belief by many people, is nothing but a myth.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18812072<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by human lie-detector Matt Harris from <\/span>Feel Good Contact Lenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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