DAY 324: Becoming a human lie detector

I WENT to see The Panics play last night, and I noticed frontman Jae stared up and to the right as he sang, sometimes right over his shoulder.

This is because he was using his imagination to recreate the world he’d written about.* You look to the right when you’re creating, fabricating or lying. Looking left means you’re retrieving actual information.

It’s more complex than that, though – we access different parts of our brain depending on whether we’re using our imagination, or recalling smells, sounds or visuals.

This human lie detection website gives me some scenarios to pose to my two guinea-pigs.

1. Ask someone to think of the noise of thunder. When a person’s eyes look to their right, they are constructing an auditory thought.
Simone: Looked right.
Layna: Looked right.

2. Ask someone what they wore yesterday. People look up and to their left when they’re remembering a visual image.
Simone: Right, up.
Layna: Right.

3. Ask someone to picture a boat on the ocean. This is a visually constructed image, and they should look up and to their right.
Simone: Right.
Layna: Right.

4. Ask someone to think of their favourite song and play it in their mind. This is recalling an auditory memory and they should look to their left.
Simone: Right.
Layna: Right, then left.

5. Ask someone how it feels to walk in wet sand. They should look down and to their left as they recall a sensory impression like taste, smell, or feeling. We look down and left when we’re conversing with ourselves.
Simone: Down and right.
Layna: Left.

Keeper? Yes, will be watching everyone extremely carefully from now on. Including myself.

* in my opinion.