a

What the Eyes Tell You About

Lying and Hidden Emotions

646
SHARES
What do the eyes tell us about deception? Hidden emotions?
Relationships? In this post I want to break down different eye behaviors and
cues.

Baselining
Before getting into details, I have to rst explain the importance of
baselining. The rst step to guring out if someone is lying to you is to nd
their baseline. A baseline is how someone acts when they are under normal,
non-threatening conditions. Easily establish baselines by sitting down with
the person you want to read better—your child, your spouse, your friend and
talk to them casually about neutral topics that they would have no reason to
lie about, like the weather or what they want to have for dinner. Take note of
how they act, how they hold their body, how they sound.

Once you have established someone’s baseline you can look for some of the
typical gestures outlined below people make with their eyes. If you see one
of these clues and it is different than their baseline behavior you know it is a
red ag and you have to dig a little deeper.

Eye-Related Nonverbal Clues:

 

1. Eye-Blocking
Covering or shielding the eyes is often seen when people literally do not like
what they see. You will see this when people feel threatened by something
or are repulsed by what they are hearing or seeing. This is an indicator of
un-happy behavior. You also see eye-blocking in the form of eye-rubbing,
 lots of blinking. Eye blocking is powerful display of consternation, disbelief
or disagreement.  This is actually an innate behavior–children who are born
blind actually cover their eyes when they hear bad news.

2. Pupillometry
Our pupils dilate when we are seeing something stimulating or we are in
low light. If we are aroused our pupils dilate in order to take in more of our
pleasing surroundings. Often during courtship pupils stay dilated. You can
tell when someone is aroused by looking closely at their pupils in constant
646 surrounding light.
SHARES

Advertisers almost always widen the pupils of women in their ads because
it makes their product look aroused and welcoming.
When we see something negative our pupils also tend to constrict to block
out the offensive imagery.

3. Squinting
People often squint at you when they do not like you or something you are
saying. It can mean suspicion. (Same principal as eye-blocking above–
blocking out what they do not like). If you see someone squint at you (and it
is not low light) address them directly and clarify your point. They will often
be amazed you picked up on their disbelief.

4. Eyebrows
We raise our eyebrows in a quick ash to draw attention to the face to be
able to send clear communication signals. I have noticed I do this when I
want to be understood or emphasize a point. Raising the eyebrows is a
gesture of congeniality and hoping to get along and communicate better.

5. Synchrony and Mimicry

Mimicry or synchrony is when your behavior mimics or mirrors someone
elses. You can mimic someone elses eye movement to build rapport.
Although use this with caution–it is dif cult to mimic someone in a genuine
subtle way. If they notice it can feel creepy or forced.

6. Eyes and Courtship

 Eye behavior is an important part of courtship. Here are the many ways we
use our eye area in romance:

Women pluck their eyebrows higher up their forehead because it makes us

look more helpless and this actually releases hormones in a man’s brain to
protect and defend the female.
Women tend to raise their eyebrows and lower their lids to give the look
of orgasming. (Think Marilyn Monroe)
Looking up and to the side is a ‘come hither’ look from a woman to a man.
646 Gazing at someone often engages their attention and encourages them to
SHARES
like you in return.
Researcher Monika Moore found that men often miss a women’s rst eye-
gazing courtship signal. On average, she needs to do it three times before
the man takes notice.
A sideways glance over a raised shoulder highlights curves, the roundness
of the female face–which signi es estrogen and exposes
the vulnerability and pheromones of the neck. A great move for women
trying to irt.

7. Gazing
Gazing can be an intimate activity. In fact if you disagree with a superior you
can show disagreement by holding gaze for a bit longer than normal. An
interesting experiment shows the importance of gazing while dating. In one
experiment, researchers told one partner on a blind date that the other had
an eye problem, but that they didn’t know which eye was slow. This caused
the person to do deep eye gazing to try to gure out which eye was the
problem eye. Interestingly, compared to people on control dates (they were
told nothing about an eye problem) the people on the eye problem date
scored each other much better and rated the date higher and more intimate.

There are three types of gazing:

1)   Social Gazing– This is a triangle from the eyes to the mouth. It is

non-aggressive and shows comfort.

2)   Intimate Gazing– If you want to be intimate with someone you want

to look from their eyes to their mouth and lower to the body. If someone
 is doing this to you it usually means they are having intimate thoughts
about you.

3)   Power Gazing– This is a triangle between the eyes and the forehead.
It avoids the intimate areas of the mouth and body completely.
(narrowing eyes is very powerful) (Women who play hard to get use
social gazing not the intimate gaze in courtship.)

8. Sideways Glance
646 This usually denotes uncertainty or the need of more info. If someone
SHARES
sideways glances and has furrowed brow it can mean suspicion or critical
feelings. Eyebrows up brows with a sideways glance on the other hand
usually means interest or is a sign of courtship.

9. Looking Down One’s Nose

If someone lifts their head and looks down their nose at you it usually
means they feel superior.

10. Darting Eyes
Darting eyes always means the person feels insecure. They are often looking
for escape routes to talking to you.

11. Glasses
Studies show that women who wear glasses and make-up make the best
impressions in business. Also those who wear glasses and peer over their
lenses at others is always intimidating.

12. Women
Women observe and examine men more in interviews. They especially notice
the back of men’s shoes as they walk out the door.

13. Controlling Where People Look

During presentations you can actually use people’s eyes to lead them in
topics. Use your pen to garner attention. You can actually hold it at eye-level
and then lift people’s head when you make a point. You can also compare
points by drawing people’s eyes to the right and left.
 14. Eye Direction
There are a number of studies that talk about the direction of eyes during
lies. Typically when people look up an to the right they are lying or tapping
into their imagination. When they look up to the left they are remembering
or recalling something, tapping into the memory part of the brain.
However be sure you get to know their natural movements because this can
be reversed for left handed people. Here are some other guidelines that have
been observed in people:
646
SHARES Looking to Their Right = Auditory Thought (Remembering a song)
Looking to Their Left = Visual Thought (Remembering the color of a dress)
Looking Down to Their Right = Someone creating a feeling or sensory
memory (Thinking what it would be like to swim in jello)
Looking Down to Their Left = Someone talking to themselves

This can help you detect a lie if you ask someone a question and they look
down to the right–as in they were creating a memory instead of
remembering something. Note of caution, I have not been able to nd a
study replicating this effect–so only use with caution!

Citations:

Navarro, Joe, and Marvin Karlins. What Every BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s
Guide to Speed-reading People. New York, NY: Collins Living, 2008.

Ekman, Paul. Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and

Marriage. New York: Norton, 1985.

Pease, Allan, and Barbara Pease. The De nitive Book of Body Language. New
York: Bantam, 2006.

Meyer, Pamela. Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception. New York:

St. Martin’s, 2010.

Craig, David. Lie Catcher: Become a Human Lie Detector in under 60 Minutes.

Newport, N.S.W.: Big Sky, 2011.
 Could you be a human lie detector?
Learn the 5 scienti cally proven steps to being a lie detector in
our online training. Never miss a lie again. You'll be able to
646 spot deception and uncover hidden emotions, and unlock the
SHARES
secret language of lies.

Teach Me

You may also like...

Video: How to Tell When Your Child Is Lying to You Video
 How to Tell When Your Child Is Lying

646
SHARES


How to Tell If Your Interviewer Is Lying



The Science of Lying

 Become a Master Conversationalist +

646
SHARES

Learn 3 Steps to Amazing

Conversation
Use our science backed formula to make every conversation
count - without losing your authenticity.
 Enter your rst name...

Enter your email...

Sign Up

646
SHARES

POPULAR ARTICLES
The 5 Habits of Socially Successful People

How to Think Like a Leader

20 Hand Gestures You Should Be Using

How to Be More Interesting

10 Ways to Rock a Conference

How to Make Friends as an Adult

Don't Click Here
                    

   

646
SHARES
Train

The Book: Captivate

Play in our lab, level up your People School

relationships and Lie Detection Course
supercharge your people
skills. See what the Science Business Speaking
of People is all about and Become a Trainer
how we can help.

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Read and Watch Join the community

TedX London Talk    

Conversation Starters

Microexpressions Start here

Are you an Ambivert?

People Skills