The Definitive Book of Body Language

The Definitive Book of Body Language

were told to tell a series of lies to others in recorded inter-
views. The recordings were used in our communication
seminars where viewers were asked to judge who was lying and
who wasn't. What we discovered was contrary to a popular
belief about liars. Approximately 30% of the liars constantly
looked away when they lied and the viewers spotted these lies
around 80% of the time, with women having a better catch
rate than men. The other 70% of the liars maintained strong
eye contact with their victim, assuming they were less likely to
get caught if they did the opposite of what people expected.
They were right. Lie-catching dropped to an average of 25%,
with men scoring a dismal 15% success and women 35%.
Women's more intuitive brains were better than men's in
detecting voice changes, pupil dilation and other cues that
gave the liar away. This shows that gaze alone is not a reliable
signal of lying and you need to observe other gestures as well.
When a person's gaze meets yours for more than two-thirds
of the time, it can mean one of two things: first, he finds you
interesting or appealing, in which case he'll also have dilated
pupils; or second, he's hostile towards you and could be issuing
a challenge, in which case the pupils will be constricted. As
mentioned, women are good at deciphering pupil signals and
can differentiate interest from aggression, but men are signifi-
cantly worse at doing it. This is why the average man can't tell
if a woman is about to give him a kiss or a slap in the face.

How to Avoid being Attacked or Abused

Most primates avert their gaze to show submission. If an ape
is going to display aggression or is likely to attack, it will lock
eyes onto its victim. To avoid being attacked, the victim win
look away and try to make itself appear smaller. Scientific evi-
dence shows that submission behaviour appears to be
hardwired into primate brains for survival reasons. Under
attack, we make ourselves appear smaller by hunching our
shoulders, pulling our arms in close to the body, pressing our