Good NLP myths don’t die

Yep, it’s back yet again – the NLP Lie-Detector myth or lie.  I’ve just come across a Google Alerts’ reference to this NLP lie-detector article from Alabama’s North Jefferson News.

What myth?? You know, it’s the one which says that you can tell if a person is lying by whether they look up to the right or to the left when you ask them a question.

The Myth

In essence it suggests that if you ask someone a question and their eyes move up and to their left they ‘should be’ remembering something they have already seen.  And if they look up and to their right they ‘are’ creating or making up an image.

So if I ask you a question and you look up and to your right this shows me that you are making up the answer i.e. you are lying. Simple! And false.

(By the way, there’s a previous Pegasus NLP Blog article about the lie-detector myth published in February 2008.) Continue reading →