How to Spot Liars by Their Eye Movements

You don't need a fancy machine to tell if someone's lying to you. All you need is a little bit of knowledge about body language. Spotting liars by their eye movements is a skill that detectives and educators have perfected over the years, and you can hold the power over others by following these easy steps. Your friends and loved ones won't know how, but they'll be caught red-handed.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Look the other person in the eye. Ideally, you should sit or stand directly in front of the person you're talking to, so that you get a good view of her eyes. Try not to be too obvious by staring; simply make eye contact like you would with any other person.

2. Stick to surface streets at first. Since everyone reacts differently, you should start off by asking simple questions that the other person would answer truthfully. You can ask him what he had for lunch, for instance, and pay attention to where his eyes move during his answer.

3. Move on to more difficult questions whose answers might be less straightforward--or possibly embarrassing--and see if the other person's eyes move differently than before.

4. See the signs. Generally speaking, someone looks to the top left when answering a question if she's recalling a memory. So she's probably telling the truth then. When she looks to the top right, however, she's accessing the creative part of her brain, which means that she's probably making up a lie to tell you.