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60 Deception at Work

This is all very interesting stuff, but the expressions were all posed mainly in response to
stimulation by smell: in the case of Doris (Figure 3.7) by showing her a Big Mac. To that extent
the results have to be regarded as artificial and in any case do not take you very far. You could
hardly say to her: ‘Look here, Doris, I know you are unhappy because your risorius w/ platysma
muscle has pulled your expression into AU 20.’ Try this and you are likely to get a smack with
her handbag.

The problem is not in recognizing when a person is lying, but what you do about it

However, the Eckman–Freisen research is important in confirming the relationship be-
tween apparently genuine emotion and facial expressions. We will return to this point in
Table 3.8, page 73.

A person’s eye movements, including their direction (left, right, up or down), the size (or
dilation) of their pupils, gaze intensity and blinking rates are mainly driven unconsciously
and, when a person is lying, are different from his normal communications code. The nor-
mal reaction when a person is recalling from memory (probably true) or constructing a story
(probably false) can be summarized as in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3 Eye accessing clues

Channel of Construction of a lie Remembering the truth
communication or
type of memory Eye movement from the subject’s position
being accessed

Vertical Horizontal Vertical Horizontal

Visual UP RIGHT UP LEFT

Auditory AHEAD RIGHT AHEAD LEFT

Emotional DOWN RIGHT DOWN LEFT

A LITTLE TEST It probably won’t work because you are
thinking consciously about eye movements,
Try this little test: concentrate on which but unconsciously to the first question your
way your eyes are drawn in answering the eyes would drift to the left (and up if you
following questions. are trying to picture her) and to the second
question your eyes will be pulled to the
• What is the date of your mother’s right.
birthday?

• What is the result of multiplying 72 by 6?

There are obviously exceptions to the rule,15 but it is very easy (with a little practice on your
granny or by watching politicians on television) to work out what the subject’s baseline pat-
terns of eye movements are and to determine which way they move when they are truthfully
retrieving facts from memory or untruthfully contriving them in the imagination. You then
have to remain consciously alert to changes in the response to relevant questions.

15 Especially with left-handed people