Eye Movement and Lying

Lying seems like has become an indispensable part of our life. Research done by Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of Virginia shows that most people lie once or twice a day. This result did not include the mindless pleasantries. Why do we tell lie? Of course, there are thousands of pretext that we can reason out to defend ourselves. However, sometimes we lie so that we will not hurt other people 's feelings which can also called white lie. In DePaulo's study, it also revealed that "false positive" lie (white lie) are about 10 to 20 times more frequent than "fake negative" lie.

The study, again, proved that men and women communicate in different ways. According to the research, men are more likely to lie about themselves. In contrast, women are prone to lie to protect other's feeling. Other than that, women generally have a better skill in figure out who is the deceiver and deceive others. On the other hand, men are on the other way round.

Well, what we concern when discussing the topic of lying is how can we know who is lying and who is not? Below is a some eye movement clues that you can look out when judging whether a person is lying to you. However, this may not be true for everyone and only investigate eye movement is not enough for making a conclusion.

Visual Accessing Cues

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".

Reference:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=19970501-000033&page=2
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies_eyes.php