Your eyes will position themselves according to the thoughts that are in your head. By watching your eyes, other people can often tell what you are thinking and whether you are lying.
Professional poker players know that their eyes can be a dead giveaway. Most professional players are very good at reading body language and are interested in reading it. They also often wear sunglasses, baseball caps, and other accessories on their faces to hide their eyes.
Eye behavior is quite predictable, someone will make eye contact with you and during the conversation they take a moment to think. During this brief moment, while accessing the information in your brain, your eyes will move to a predictable position. This is what the different positions mean:
– Eyes on top right (first person top left) – When someone moves their eyes up and to the right, it means they are accessing the visual part of their memory. In this person’s head they are visualizing objects, colors, movements and other visual information related to their conversation. If you want to see someone do this, a good question to ask them is, “what color is your car?”
– Eyes to the right of the middle (first person on the left) – Moving your eyes directly to the right is a sign that they are accessing the auditory part of your memory. The person might be remembering a song, the sound of a voice, or a particular noise. If you ask someone to think about the sound of their alarm clock, they should look to the right.
– Eyes down and to the right (first person down left): Someone who is talking to themselves or thinking about what they are going to say next will look down and to the right. Ask someone how a conversation went and they’ll look down and to the right.
– Eyes up and left (1st person from top right) – Looking up and to the left allows someone to access the visual part of their imagination. This person is building an image in his head. If you ask someone to imagine a green sky with red clouds, they should look up and to the left.
– Eyes left center (first person right) – A person looking directly to the left is building sounds in their head. They may be imagining what an unfamiliar voice sounds like or creating a new melody. Ask someone to imagine the sound of a car horn underwater and they will probably look to the left.
– Eyes down and left (first person down right) – When thinking about their feelings, someone will look down and to the left. Often when people say “I feel…” they look down and to the left, and you can tell they are actually thinking about how they feel.
To detect someone who is lying, it is important to understand how their eyes normally move and then notice when their behavior changes. For example, his friend tells him about her recent vacation and he looks up as she describes the hotel and the places he visited. Suddenly his eyes move to the upper left and he tells you about this girl he met while she was there. There is a great possibility that he is lying about the girl.
Many people have become good at lying by learning to mask the signs of a lie. If you look into his eyes, he’s likely to hold eye contact while telling a lie or to walk away from you. Once again, notice how they were moving when they were telling the truth, and then compare this to when you think they are lying.
Knowing how to read people’s eyes can be a huge advantage when communicating in person. You’ll know instantly when someone is lying and you’ll be able to catch them before they get away.