Do shifty eyes really mean you’re lying?

Shifty eyes just mean you’re accessing your long term memory, not that you’re lying.

Via MSNBC:

Psychology professor Howard Ehrlichman of Queens College, City University of New York, has been studying eye movement since the 1970s. In a recent article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, he reviewed some of his work, including recent findings, and argued there’s robust evidence that I’m not being shifty-eyed at all. I’m just thinking. More specifically, I’m accessing long-term memory.

So why do we do it?

Our brain’s long-term memory is like an internalized landscape. We don’t need our eyes to scan it, but “our eyes go along for the ride,” Ehrlichman says, even if we’re not looking for anything visual.

More on deception:

1) You can tell how smart your child is by how early they start lying. Also, it’s harder for us to detect lies as we age.

2) Sexually open-minded people are better at reading faces.

3) Sadly, we lie most to those we are closest to.

4) Believing in a caring, forgiving god makes you more likely to cheat.

5) Deceiving others increases self-deception. In fact, over time we may become our lies.

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