Published July 12, 2012 Conventional wisdom has it that when
people talk, the direction of their eye movements reveals
whether or not they're lying. A glance up and to the left
supposedly means a person is telling the truth, whereas a glance
to the upper left signals deceit. However, new research
thoroughly debunks these notions. As it turns out, you can't
smell a liar by where he looks. Researchers in the United
Kingdom investigated the alleged correlation between eye
direction and lying after realizing it was being taught in
behavioral training courses, seminars and on the Web without the
support of a shred of scientific evidence. The idea has its
roots in a largely discredited 1970s theory called Neuro-
Linguistic Programming (NLP), a set of techniques intended to
help people master social interactions. In one experiment, the
scientists monitored the leftward and rightward glances of 32
study participants as they told a mix of truths and falsehoods.
The participants — all of whom were right-handed, in case