body language and the eyes - any experts?

cm1179

cm1179

cm1179

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16961668

watch the vid of heather mills answering questions if you can (full screen is better)

i noticed that she answers the question regarding the date of the incident with no abnormal eye action, however, the next question regarding giving permission, she leaves her eyes closed when answering the first one, rolls them up to her left for the second and the third question she does a little similar eye close to the first question.

is there any proven reasoning behind why people do this and what does it tend to mean? i've seen on lots of occassion (usually on tv reality type shows tbf) where someone is asked a question, a personal question ie. 'do you like this person? 'yes, i hope to see them again' or even paying someone a compliment 'that was the best dessert i've ever had' where there is a definitive closing of the eyes upon answering. is this because they're not being truthful and genuine or is it some other reason like their mind does not find it easy to be so open?
 
Looking up to the left is an indicator of someone recalling an event from memory, the upper right is when they're using deception (making stuff up on the spot).

See job thread for the link I posted yesterday.
 
mrk said:
Looking up to the left is an indicator of someone recalling an event from memory, the upper right is when they're using deception (making stuff up on the spot).

See job thread for the link I posted yesterday.
Click to expand...

Wrong away around dude. Left for making up and right for taking from memory. From the person who is doing the talking point of view... so maybe thats what you meant?

EDIT: I'm getting my knickers in a twist here, and getting the sides mixed up, lol, been a looooong time.

From persons point of view. looking left is true and right is creating.
 
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Not that I'm aware of no, it's which way the person is looking first person, most simple, concise way of explaining no?

Looking at the recording she is telling the truth, esp when she looks to the upper left and earlier on when she looks to the left quickly.

Having her notes on the right hand side looks like a good trick but after direct questions her body language is saying 'truth' to me.
 
shadesofgrey said:
Wrong away around dude. Left for making up and right for taking from memory. From the person who is doing the talking point of view... so maybe thats what you meant?
Click to expand...

i dont look to the right when recalling from memory :confused:, i look up and to the left.

maybe because im left handed? lol

I wonder if it makes a difference whether the person is right or left handed?
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i always thought it was looking up and to any side direction was recalling from memory and just looking to a side or nowhere was possibly fabricating an answer
 
It's important to note that many physical 'tells' differ from person-to-person. You generally have to get to know that person's 'style' before you can say anything for certain.
 
I got quite into the whole body language thing a few years back and read several books on the subject.

Although things such as looking up to the left/right can be indicative signals, they are not 100% certain. Studies consistently show that even seasoned law-enforcement officers are only able to identify if someone is lying ~60% of the time. The average person is correct about 50% of the time - doing no better at detecting a liar than someone in another room randomly choosing true/false (despite the vast majority of people rating themselves as being good at detecting lies).

What professionals do is learn a person's physical behaviour when they are in a comfortable situation, and then identify signals of discomfort. These can include microexpressions, changes in voice pitch, fidgeting, a lack of fidgeting, less eye contact, more eye contact, faster speech, slower speech, more/less blinking etc. All these things do indicate discomfort but do not prove lying and are not the same in everyone.

For example, if an innocent person was brought into a police station for questioning, if they were then started to be asking accusing questions about a murder they might well react with many of the physical behaviours that you imagine a liar would, because the inference of accusation is making them uncomfortable. With the OP the questions may be causing her discomfort for whatever reason, accounting for her change in physical behaviour, but it doesn’t prove she’s lying, just that the question is causing her stress.
 
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