Watch the eyes: a telltale sign of deception

Coulter Ebbert

 

 

As learned in class, deception is deliberately inducing in another a belief known to be false. The types of deception stretch from lies and concealment to minimizations and exaggerations. We also covered a study presented in class in which the subjects of the study only had 54% accuracy in detecting deception in another person. In the article “The Eyes Have it: How to Detect Deception”, the author John Bowden discusses cues and signs of deceptions in non-verbal communication. Specifically dealing with eye contact, Bowden walks his audience through the trials of detecting eye movement that are the most common with deception. Bowden also uses various examples of conversation transcripts and the dialogue/eye movement of the person being questioned. The article begins by explaining how the typical deceiver’s eyes move when telling a lie. Bowden explains that upon being asked a question, a truthful person retains eye contact while the question is being asked, could lose eye contact as if pondering for a moment and typically regains eye contact with the interviewee at the moment the answer is given. Bowden explains that is different for someone who is being deceitful. One who is being deceitful will, at the moment of the answer, not have eye contact with the interviewee but will instead roll their eyes, avert their attention to something else, cover their face, or just look away. Bowden goes on to tell his readers that if trying to detect deception, one should never force another into eye contact. This could result in the causation of what he calls “false eye contact” which could obscure the ability to read true breaks in eye contact. Bowden also explains how to examine eye contact in during the telling of a story. He says that a person may make eye contact with his or her listener when key points of the story are being told and at the end of the tale the story teller regains eye contact with the listener. According to Bowden, if there is a number one rule in the interpretation of non-verbal human behavior, it is to look for breaks in eye contact. So remember, if you are ever trying to emphasize the truth in any given situation, eye contact is key! And for those of you who are being deceptive, in order to be successful one must control their eye movements. For a good and informative read I suggest you check out Bowden’s article.