Eye movement direction not correlated with lying

[DavidDvorkin]

The idea that looking to the right indicates lying, while looking left suggests truth telling, is shown to be false

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/plos-emd071012.php


I've always thought that idea was nonsense.

[2on2u]

1. How can you tell if a possum is really sleeping when he/she looks at you

like this?

[IDemo]

5. -

[Hoyt]

8. That's hilarious.

[lob1]

2. When you wrote this, you were looking to the right, right?

[Lionessa]

3. Actually I read that 90% of the crap in the TV show "Lie to Me" was in fact false.

I did like the show well enough, but like the CSI-a-likes, it's mostly crap. Unfortunately our society seems to think TV dramas relay accurate information even if they know the story is fictional.

[Gold Metal Flake]

4. Oh no! That is gonna hurt the court body language expert industry!

How will the economy recover?

[Robb]

6. I'd been taught up and to the right indicates creative thought, up and to the left accessing memory.

Truth and lying can subsequently be determined, but only with context; this study has a big problem in this regard.

For example, the study asked some participants to lie about what they had seen in a desk drawer. In order to do so, first you're going to have to remember what was actually in the drawer, then come up with a different answer. Your brain isn't simply doing one thing or the other -- it's doing both. Little surprise the study found they went to one side or the other at a pretty even split.

[tallahasseedem]

10. I always look to the left when I am in an in-depth conversation...

I've noticed it more as I have gotten older. It is a "gathering" my thoughts type of thing.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. I think that nonsense like body language catches on

because people want simple, easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions that will let them (they think) decipher human nature, without all the subtleties and ambiguities.

[Odin2005]

9. And shit like this is deeply harmful to autistic people like myself...

...who have issues with eye contact. I fear some asshole cop will taze me because he thinks I'm lying.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. And deaf/hard of hearing people like me

We tend to lip read, so we watch the other person's mouth instead of the eyes.