Eye movements don't reveal lying

16 July 2012

Eye movements don't reveal lying

The belief that your eyes can reveal if you're lying is a myth, according to researchers.

The belief that your eyes can reveal if you're lying is a myth, according to U.K. researchers.

Some psychologists think that people look up to their right when they're lying and look up to the left when they're being honest, BBC News reported.

But researchers at Edinburgh and Hertfordshire universities conducted a series of tests on volunteers and found that there was no truth to this theory. Their findings were published online in the journal PLoS One.

"A large percentage of the public believes that certain eye movements are a sign of lying, and this idea is even taught in organizational training courses," study co-author Caroline Watt of Edinburgh University told the BBC. "Our research provides no support for the idea and so suggests that it is time to abandon this approach to detecting deceit."

Read more:
What your eyes can reveal