You can tell a lot about how a person feels about you from the amount and kind of eye contact they give you during conversation. Noticing very little eye contact may suggest theyre feeling bored. While a heavy, unbroken gaze can bring about intense feelings of attraction, or even love. Numerous scientific studies have shown that the act of two strangers simply staring into each others eyes for 2 minutes was enough to create passionate feelings for each other (Kellerman, Lewis, Laird, 1989). So, its clear that eye contact is a strong indicator and reflection of how a person feels both about the situation theyre in while talking to you, and how they feel towards you at that time. Combining both of these points, it becomes obvious that the type of eye contact a person gives while lying differs greatly from that which they give when telling you the truth. Its the detection of those differences that will allow you to watch how they gaze or dont gaze at you during conversation, and use that information to gauge accurately whether theyre being deceitful or telling the truth. There are two main eye contact deceit indicators you should look out for: aversion and amplification.
Eye Contact Aversion
Averting the eyes and lessening the amount of eye contact given during conversation is often a noticeable trait in liars of low to intermediate skill level. The reason they tend to look at you less while being dishonest is because of the internal anxiety theyre feeling its almost as if they feel youll be able to see right through their charade if given the chance to look deep into their eyes. They are, after all, commonly known as the windows to the soul because of their expressiveness, and many people are subconsciously aware of this fact and unknowingly decrease the amount of eye contact they give while lying to try and avoid being betrayed by their eyes.
Eye Contact Amplification
Liars who are more skilled deceivers tend to do the opposite to eye contact aversion, and actually increase the duration of their gazes while talking to you. They do this subconsciously to counteract the widely held belief that people, while lying, become shifty-eyed (aversion). The problem for those that subliminally increase eye contact to offset the revealing effect aversion can have, is that they usually overcompensate they increase their eye contact with you too much, making it detectable and therefore a good indicator of deceit. Most people while lying tend to amplify and increase their eye contact with you, as opposed to averting their gaze, simply because the vast majority of people are subconsciously aware of the shifty-eyed principle just mentioned.
Using changes in eye contact to detect distortions of the truth
People who are fair to intermediate at telling lies are likely to use eye contact aversion to help increase their chances of not being detected. Those that are naturally better at telling convincing lies, or that have rehearsed and told the same lie many times, tend to increase eye contact with you to offset the revealing effect they know shifty-eyes can have. So, how can you know which to look for and take into account when determining for sure whether or not someones manipulating you by telling a lie? The answer lies in comparison just like the analytical system used when interpreting lateral eye movements.
1. Take a mental note of how the person generally looks at you while talking about different topics, most of which will probably be the truth. Do they hold your gaze for longer than they avoid it? Do they consistently glance around you, rather than at you? Get a good feel for how they commonly use eye contact while both in the listening and speaking role of conversation.
2. When talking about questionable topics that may in fact be lies, do they use eye contact aversion or amplification? Compare their new gaze behaviour with what you originally noticed. |
