Reading Body Language – Watching Eyes
How to Interpret Non-Verbal Communication Through the Gaze of a Peer
Sep 7, 2009
It is a common phrase that the eyes are the "windows to the soul." Closely watching and analysing the movements of a peers eyes can reveal inner thoughts and even suggest if that they may be telling lies.
There are several body language "courses," and how to read body language guides, available online, however many seem contradictory. This article brings together common and reliable findings in order to provide a concise description of how to analyse eye movements.
Two researchers, Bandler and Grinder, have done great work in unearthing the most common eye movements, many of which seem to occur unconsciously and can therefore reveal much about an individual.
Reading Body Language of Someone Looking Upwards
When a person looks upwards and to the sky it is reported that they are in deep thought, perhaps conjuring pictures and images in their head and psychologically pasting them together to make sense of situation. It may also represent enforced recall, such as an actor who has forgotten his lines will often been seen to gaze upwards, as if praying an angel may be mouthing the missing memories back to them.
More specifically looking upwards towards to the left can indicate the recall and evaluation of a memory. However looking upwards and to the right indicates the creation of a memory, or more simply the nurturing of idea that never occurred – in other words, creating lies.
But, as with all these suggestions, this finding may be reversed or opposite with some individuals. It is a good plan to perhaps test this out on someone by asking them to recall a real memory and then asking them to picture how they had wished it had gone and watch how things settle.
Reading Body Language When the Eyes Look Downwards
Although looking down upon someone, physically or in statement, is mainly derogatory and portrays a feeling of superiority or disgust, it can also indicate submission and/or a lack of confidence.
Averting gaze to look down from someone’s eyes can suggest a desire to hide and an inner will to no longer see who is in front of them and be safely away from the other person. This is often displayed in young males during meeting dominant figures in a new social situation, it signifies a willingness to submit and a soft statement that they are no threat to the status quo.
Looking down and to the left tends to indicate that the person could well be experiencing ‘inner monologue’ (or in less gregarious terms, talking to themselves). This can often be also displayed with slight twitch or movement of the lips, obviously the words passing silently through the persons dreamlike mind.
Looking down and to the right displays that the person is recalling, or is experiencing, an emotional state. This could be a recent heartbreak or the joy of finding love (look for slight emotional expression to suggest which). This could also show that they are reliving a scene in which they went through such a heavy emotion, such as they first time they saw the end of a painful melancholy movie, or their first experience of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.
What Blinking Means in Body Language
Blinking is a para-sympathetic nervous exercise, which means that it is for the most part completely under no conscious control. However intense levels of emotion or tension can cause blinking to become forced or "feel" necessary when in fact it is not physically required.
Blink rate is often shown to be matched and mirrored by friends and close acquaintances. Just as people will copy postures and body shapes, people seem to be able to read and settle their breathing and blink rates to match that of a peer. This shows how revealing blinking can be. If a person can pay enough attention to subconsciously control their para-sympathetic blink rates, it must be a relative evolutionary necessity to pay attention to blink rate.
The common myth goes that people tend to blink at much higher and faster rates when they are lying. This is read as an indication of stress and lack of confidence in the words they are letting loose. As person’s eyes may water slightly more when they feel stressed, blinking may occur faster. Also blinking naturally occurs faster when a person has to think hard, or fast, as in whilst creating and telling a lie. However, now that this fact is such common knowledge, it is important to remember that people may consciously prevent themselves from blinking in order to help "conceal" their lies.
Therefore, it may be a good plan to look for someone staring widely with wet watering eyes to find the liar.
Body Language of Rubbing Eyes During Speech
Rubbing the eyes serves a very similar function as blinking. As the eyes may become more damp whilst stressed and thinking hard a person, who is likely to realise blinking would give them away, may rub there eyes with there hands.
This can also be seen as a remnant of childhood, as in the person may believe that if they hide their eyes the trouble will disappear.
Readers may also be interested in reading an article on keeping conversations interesting or displaying confidence, along with revealing the first signs of love or reading body language during a poker match
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