How Do I Get My Ex Back

As the popular song says, you can’t hide those lying eyes. Or can you? Do a persons eyes really reveal whether they are lying or not? Sometimes.

Lying Eyes – The Research

Much of the research done on lie detecting involves researchers telling subjects when to lie. These lies have no effect on the person’s life, of course. There are no meaningful rewards or punishments, so the normal behavior that would be present when lying may not be there. This may help explain why a lot of researchers have come to believe that there are no reliable indicators of dishonesty.

There is another flaw in much of the research. This is the fact that researchers look only for universal indicators, meaning behaviors that most people engage in when lying. If most people averted their eyes when telling a lie, for example, that would be a useful indicator. Not finding these universal indicators, researchers again conclude that  there are no reliable indicators of dishonesty.

But what if when telling real lies, instead of “laboratory lies,” a man always blinked his eyes? That would be a good example of “lying eyes,” and a useful indicator to watch for with this man. However, since behavior in a lab is probably different, and since most people don’t blink when lying, researchers would generally ignore this case.

Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth in England, decided to correct these flaws in the research. he started by watching real-life police interrogation videos, concentrating on cases where the true facts were later determined, so he knew when the subjects were lying. He found that there were fairly reliable clues to whether a person is lying, but that these are not universal. They are individual.

One person consistently averts his gaze when lying, for example, while another has greater eye-contact when lying. Most research doesn’t test for these individual factors, so the results seem to indicate that lie-detecting isn’t viable. But a person who takes into account the individuals habits and patterns of behavior can detect lies better.

Detecting Lying Eyes

To do your own lie detection then, go ahead and watch the eyes, and any body movements. But watch for individual indicators. How will you know what they are? With a little research of your own.

If you want to learn what your husband does when lying, for example, you have to watch carefully when he is lying. Start by asking a question to which you know the truth, but he is likely to lie about. If he does lie, watch those eyes and hand and anything else. If he tells the truth, you’ll just have to try again with a new question.

Do this at least several times to be sure that any indicators are reliable. Ask a tough question or two that he will tell the truth about too, to see if he reacts the same under pressure, or only when lying. You can also watch as he lies to others on the phone or in person. With time and careful observation, you might find some reliable indicators. He take a deep breath when he is being dishonest. He might stop breathing for a moment. He might bite his nails. Or he might have lying eyes.

Is he (or she) lying? There are numerous clues that can help you spot a lie. You can learn about body language and how words are used, and even how to trap a liar. But one of the more interesting ways to tell if someone is lying comes from recent research at the University of Portsmouth. It has to do with our difficulty telling a story backwards.

Researchers started with the general theory that it is harder to invent a story than to tell a true one. This makes sense. If someone asked you what you did last night, you would be able to remember and recount the events quickly, right? It might take you a little more time to invent a story.

Starting from this, they decided to test to see what happens when people try to relate events in reverse order after first doing so in chronological order. Naturally it is harder, but most of us have no problem doing this: “I came home. Just before that I was at the convenience store, and before that at the bar on fifth street.” However, would it be more difficult to do this if the story was invented? Would you make more mistakes and change your story?

This is exactly what the testing indicated. It included 290 police officers, and 255 students. The police officers were supposed to determine whether the student in each interview was lying or telling the truth (students were prepped beforehand to do one or the other). Regular police interview methods were used, and then “cognitive load interviews” were tried, in which the “suspects” were asked to recall the most recent events and work backwards.

The results? Officers were much more likely to determine who was lying when these “reverse tactics” were used. “Those paying attention to visual cues proved significantly worse at distinguishing liars from those telling the truth than those looking for speech-related cues,” said researcher Aldert Vrij. “Certain visual behaviors are associated with lying, but this doesn’t always work. Nor is comparing a suspect’s responses during small talk, and then in a formal interview, likely to be much help.”

Vrij also noted that unlike those telling the truth, “…liars tend to tell their stories in a strict chronological time order…” That’s another little clue we can use to tell if someone is lying. But the primary lesson here is that liars have a harder time keeping their stories straight when they have to tell them backwards.