Expert reveals how to spot your teen is lying through Blink Patterns

It is common for teenagers to sometimes lie to their parent or guardian to protect privacy, avoid responsibility, punishment, or protect others, but when the occasional lie becomes a regular occurrence, it can be difficult to believe them when they are telling the truth. While teaching your teen the value and importance of telling the truth, the eyes – more specifically blinking patterns may reveal more than you think.

Vision Direct have developed a new tool which allows users to track their blinks for one minute to reveal what their blinking pattern may be indicating. As part of the research, they consulted Body Language Expert, Traci Brown, about how blinks change when someone is lying.

How to catch your teen lying

An example of our eyes giving us away is that our blinking changes when we lie. When people lie, they usually forget to blink, because they are focusing on the details, but once they finish telling the lie, they are likely to blink quickly.

Traci Brown, Body Language Expert, said: "There is significant evidence that blink rate and blink weight can play a part in indicating deception. Typically, if their blinking changes it will get less rapid during the lie and then increase dramatically right after the lie is told. However, it is important to note that blinking is just a piece of the puzzle. It is vital to pay attention to other factors in their body language and tone to aid in the detection of deception."

This happens because the increased cognitive load from concentrating and delivering a believable lie makes your brain pay less attention to blinking, this of course then results in several rapid blinks post lie.

A 2015 study conducted by the University of Michigan discovered that liars tend to stare at the person they’re lying to, a whopping 70% of the people that were lying stared directly at the people they were lying to.

Take Bill Clinton’s infamous six-minute speech regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky as a prime example. He blinked straight after saying vitally important words such as “sexual”, “relations”, “Lewinsky” and “never”. The way he punctuated his lies with a stress-relieving blink shows that his pre-occupation was getting his lie out.

But can someone with this knowledge change their behaviour to appear truthful? Traci Brown said: “People that try to manipulate their body language to appear a certain way almost always fail. This is because we are largely unaware of our blinking in everyday situations and efforts to change that appears off which, in the end, can backfire as it causes the manipulator to appear incongruent in their communication.”

Meaning by trying to not appear guilty of a lie you could be making it more obvious. So, those looking to catch out a master of deception may be able to decipher their blinking pattern to help get to the truth.

Want to know what your blinking says about you? Try the tool here: https://news.visiondirect.co.uk/blinking-patterns-revealed/#blinkGame