Lying Eyes - How You Can Tell Someone is Being Less Than Honest

While there is great debate on whether you can tell if a person is lying to you by the movement of their eyes, many believe that the theory holds true more times than not. If you were ever curious as to how this works, keep reading, and then try it out for yourself. You might just be surprised as to how accurate the method really is.

Important things to remember

• The eye direction that you are looking for is from YOUR perspective not the actual direction their eyes are facing
• For left-handed people everything is opposite
• Because no two people are alike it is important to establish a baseline
• This is not 100% accurate so I wouldn’t make any major life changes (divorce) over the results that you get

How it works

People use vision, sound or kinesthetic (feeling) to trigger thinking. By the direction their eyes are facing can clue you into which one they are using. Additionally, whether they look right or left can also let you know if the idea is remembered or constructed.

Looking to the right (remember this is YOUR right)

Up and to the Right
Visually Remembered Image

This would be the direction that a person’s eyes would move while they were thinking about a question that you asked, that required them to picture something they remembered.

Ex. “What color was your first cat?”

To the Right
Auditory Remembered

This would be the direction that a person’s eyes would move while they were thinking about a question that you asked, that required them to remember a sound they have previously heard.

Ex. “What does a fire truck sound like?”

Down and To the Right
Internal Dialog

Basically, this just means that someone is talking to themselves.

Looking to the left (remember this is YOUR left)

Up and to the Left
Visually Constructed Image

This would be the direction a person’s eyes moved while thinking of a constructed (made up) image to answer a question.

Ex. “Imagine a pink elephant flying.”

To the Left
Auditory Constructed

This would be the direction a person’s eyes would move while thinking of a constructed sound to answer a question.

Ex. “Try to create a melody in your head.”

Down and to the Left
Kinesthetic (Feeling)

If a person looks down and left when thinking of a question, they are trying to recall something they’ve smelled, tasted, or felt.

Ex. “Can you remember how an orange tastes?”

So remember, while these eye-accessing cues can be helpful in trying to determine if someone is being truthful to you or not, they are just cues and should be treated as such.