Nguyen Tam
We have all met people who were dishonest and avoided eye contact. It has been said that "the eyes are the mirror if the soul." Many people know that their eyes betray their lies. Some try to conceal the truth by wearing sunglasses of looking down at the ground.
Eventually, you will confront someone and need to know if they are being honest. It may be a friend, a family member or an employee. Police have established a method of evaluating the truthfulness of a person by watching the movements of their eyes. It's not an exact science by any means, and it can be manipulated by a skilled criminal or a seasoned liar, but is it generally accepted as a good indicator of honesty.
The following are some general patterns that you can use when talking to someone. It shows the various directions of eye movements of a person and explains what is usually going on in their mind at that moment. It illustrates that a glance to the observer's left usually reveals a creative process -- when someone is "making up" facts or lying. A glance to the observer's right reveals that the subject is remembering facts.
Here is a more detailed explanation of this method:
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| Visual Lie Visual Truth |
Up and to the Left: Indicates a visually constructed Images. If you asked someone to "Imagine an ice cream sundae with a red cherry on top", this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are "Visually Constructing" an ice cream sundae with a cherry in their mind.
Up and to the Right: Indicates a Visually Remembered Images. If you asked someone to "What color shirt or blouse did you wear yesterday?", this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are "Visually Remembering" the color.
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| Aural Lie Aural Truth |
To the Left: Indicates an Auditory Construct thought. If you asked someone to "Try and ceate the sound of a speeding train in your head", this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are imagining and creating the sound of a speeding train.
To the Right: Indicates an Auditory Memory. If you asked someone to "Remember what the National Anthem sounds like", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while remembering the song.
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| Sensual Remembrance Internal Dialog |
Down and to the Left: Indicates a Feeling / Kinesthetic / Sensory impression that is being created. If you asked someone to "Can you remember the taste of chocolate?", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while they recalled a smell, feeling, or taste of eating chocolate.
Down and To the Right: Indicates an Internal Dialog. This is the direction of someone's eyes as they "talk to themselves."
How to use this information to detect a lie?
Let's say that you have a friend who owes you some money. You have heard that they just got paid and you want to suggest that they pay you back. You try to be polite and ask them, "Did you get paid yet?" They answer, "Gee, not yet. The boss said maybe next week." and look to their right (your left). This would indicate that they are constructing or "making up" what their boss said. They are telling a lie.
Police often ask a suspect to describe someone in detail. If the suspect looks to their right (your left) they are generally constructing or "making up" the visual description. If they look to their left (your right) they are generally recalling the details from their visual memory.
So, in general, a glance to your left when observing a person indicates that they are creating or "lying" while a glance to your right signifies that they are remembering an actual event, or being "truthful."
Be Impeccable with Your Word
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Eye Movement and Direction & How it Can Reveal Truth or Lies
This is a continuation of our previous article Detecting Lies. Many comments by our visitors asked about how eye direction can indicate the presence of a lie.
Can the direction a person's eyes reveal whether or not they are making a truthful statement? Short answer: sort of. But, it isn't as simple as some recent television shows or movies make it seem.
In these shows a detective will deduce if a person is being untruthful simply because they looked to the left or right while making a statement.
In reality, it would be foolish to make such a snap judgment without further investigation... but the technique does have some merit.
So, here it is... read, ponder and test it on your friends and family to see how reliable it is for yourself.
Visual Accessing Cues - "Lying Eyes"
The first time "Visual Accessing Cues" were discussed (at least to my knowledge), was by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in their book "Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) " From their experiments this is what they found.
When asked a question a "normally organized" right-handed person looks (from your viewpoint, looking at them):
Up and to the Left Indicates: Visually Constructed Images (Vc)If you asked someone to "Imagine a purple buffalo", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Constructed" a purple buffalo in their mind.
Up and to the Right Indicates: Visually Remembered Images (Vr)If you asked someone to "What color was the first house you lived in?", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Remembered" the color of their childhood home.
To the Left Indicates: Auditory Constructed (Ac)If you asked someone to "Try and create the highest the sound of the pitch possible in your head", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Constructed" this this sound that they have never heard of.
To the Right Indicates: Auditory Remembered (Ar)If you asked someone to "Remember what their mother's voice sounds like ", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Remembered " this sound.
Down and to the Left Indicates: Feeling / Kinesthetic (F)If you asked someone to "Can you remember the smell of a campfire? ", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they used recalled a smell, feeling, or taste.
Down and To the Right Indicates: Internal Dialog (Ai)This is the direction of someone eyes as they "talk to themselves".
The Gist of it...
How this information is used to detect lies:
Example: Let's say your child asks you for a cookie, and you ask: "Well, what did your mother say?" As they reply "Mom said... yes.", they look to the left. This would indicate a made up answer as their eyes are showing a "constructed image or sound. Looking to the right would indicated a "remembered" voice or image, and thus would be telling the truth.
Final Notes:
*** Looking straight ahead or with eyes that are defocused/unmoving is also considered a sign of visual accessing.
*** A typical left-handed person would have the opposite meanings for their eye-directions.
*** As with other signs of lying, you should first establish and understand a persons base-behavior before concluding they are lying by the direction of their eyes.
*** Many critics believe the above is a bunch of bull***t. In my own experiments I have found these techniques to be more true than not. But, why not find out for yourself? Make up a list of questions that like the sample ones, and give them to your friends/family anyone who would be your guinea pig, observe their eye movements and record the results.
