You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes

And your smile is a thin disguise

I thought by now you’d realize

There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes

That’s from The Eagles great 1975 hit..

During a more than 30 year career in the financial services industry I probably interviewed over 2,000 prospective candidates for employment.

You look for certain characteristics and non-verbal clues: dress, posture, body language, and most important….the ability to maintain direct eye contact while conversing. There is nothing more disconcerting than speaking with someone who is unable to look  at you directly..whose gaze wanders all over the place.

These mannerisms are termed “Visual Accessing Clues” ( VACs….aka Lying Eyes)

It is part of the study of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Proponents of NLP believe that the frequency and direction of an individual’s eyes AWAY from the person opposite him is telling, and specifically can indicate deception, among other psychological traits and behaviors.

IOW, if a person constantly looks up at the ceiling while speaking to you; that is a different behavioral clue..as opposed to gazing downwards, and to the left,  or to the right. It’s also believed  that left handed persons display different VACs than those who are right handed. (Ask any baseball manager..he’ll tell you that southpaws are..well…just different)

I am not a behavioral scientist, I  profess no expertise in this subject,  ( I have yet to stay at a Holiday Inn Express) but have read a lot of the studies, and found there to be a great correlation with my own personal experiences. As an example, if  I was asking a person about why it took them 6 years to complete their degree, or to explain a 2 year gap in the work history portion of their resume; if that individual:  a) paused at length before replying, b) looked down and away while responding, or c) appeared tense at the question, I knew that there was some deception in the response, and I needed to probe further.

While watching Obama’s complete interview with Chuck Todd, it suddenly struck me how often he looked down and to the left, away from Todd’s face, while answering the questions. This is viewed by many as a sign of deception.

I’ve posted a link to the interview below.  Watch from the 1:00 to the 4:00 mark, and do this..mute the volume…and just watch Obama’s face.

There are several close-ups, and the behavior is obvious.

Note also the rigidity of his body, and when he uses his left hand to gesture, to emphasize a point, how his right hand continues to grip his knee.

And by comparison, watch Todd’s face during the close-ups..note how it is always directly focused on Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SiAcJ8XtXc

One can reasonably deduce that Obama was often deceptive, and suffers from considerable stress..likely due to concerns about self image and lack of self-confidence.

To end on a lighter note..here’s a live 1995 performance  of “Lyin’ Eyes.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIyfyserYEo