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<\/a>Cue<\/strong>: Shifty Eyes<\/p>\nSynonym(s)<\/strong>: N\/A<\/p>\n Description<\/strong>: Happens when the eyes dart all over the room to focus on anything but someone else\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n In One Sentence<\/strong>: Shifty eyes show lack of certainty and nervousness.<\/p>\n How To Use it<\/strong>: Shifty eyes is a cue that should be avoided unless one wishes to draw attention to ones stress and nervousness. As the cue is generally associated with lying it is looked poorly upon. The cue can be used to show nonverbal sarcasm.<\/p>\n Context<\/strong>: General.<\/p>\n Verbal Translation<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m feeling the pressure and my eyes are traveling all over the place in search of answers to the stress I\u2019m under. If I look in enough places, I\u2019m bound to find what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Variant<\/strong>: N\/A.<\/p>\n Cue In Action<\/strong>: To get him to cave, she put him in front of the class and asked him if he would confess. He was obviously lying, she though. His eyes darted about the room as she grilled him about the missing raffle money. She assumed he was lying because he wouldn\u2019t hold eye contact.<\/p>\n Meaning and\/or Motivation<\/strong>: Shifty eyes are habitually associated with lying but research shows that most practiced liars hold gaze even more strongly than normal.<\/p>\n Paul Ekman\u2019s research into lying says that people often attribute shifty or darting eyes to liars, however, as a predictor of a lie it actually falls short. Looking away from complicated human faces helps us concentrate. Therefore darting eyes doesn\u2019t really tell us anything concretely. Just that thought is taking place.<\/p>\n Additionally, the stress and nervousness of being put on the spot is enough to cause the eyes to exhibit patterns that seem dishonest. Shifty eyes are a more reliable predictor of stress than lying.<\/p>\n Cue Cluster<\/strong>: Darting eyes is connected to other nervous and stress related body language such as touching the face, neck, nose and ears, shrinking and shrugging, ducking the head and crossing the arms and legs.<\/p>\n Body Language Category<\/strong>: Confused body language, Embarrassment (nonverbal), Escape movements, Eye Language, Negative body language, Nervous body language, Stressful body language, Suspicious body language.<\/p>\n Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n Argyle, Michael; Lefebvre, Luc; Cook, Mark 1974. The meaning of five patterns of gaze. European Journal of Social Psychology. 4(2): 125-136.<\/p>\n Argyle, M., and Ingham, R. 1972. Gaze, mutual gaze, and proximity. Semiotica, 1, 32\u201349.<\/p>\n Argyle, M. and Cook, M. Gaze and Mutual Gaze. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976.<\/p>\n Allan Mazur; Eugene Rosa; Mark Faupel; Joshua Heller; Russell Leen; Blake Thurman. Physiological Aspects of Communication Via Mutual Gaze. The American Journal of Sociology. 1980; 86(1): 50-74. <\/p>\n Bowers, Andrew L. ; Crawcour, Stephen C. ; Saltuklaroglu, Tim ; Kalinowski, Joseph Breed, G., Christiansen, E., & Larson, D. 1972. Effect of lecturer’s gaze direction upon Bond, C. F., Kahler, K. N., & Paolicelli, L. M. (1985). The miscommunication of deception: An adaptive perspective. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 331\u2013345. doi:10.1016\/0022-1031(85)90034-4<\/p>\n Burns, J. A., & Kintz, B. L. (1976). Eye contact while lying during an interview. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 7, 87\u201389.<\/p>\n Chen, Yi-Chia ; Yeh, Su-Ling. Look into my eyes and I will see you: Unconscious processing of human gaze. Consciousness and Cognition. 2012 21(4): 1703-1710.<\/p>\n Ellsworth, Phoebe; Carlsmith, J Merrill. 1973. Eye contact and gaze aversion in an aggressive encounter. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 28(2): 280-292.<\/p>\n Foddy, Margaret 1978. Patterns of Gaze in Cooperative and Competitive Negotiation Gregersen, Tammy S. Nonverbal Cues: Clues to the Detection of Foreign Language Anxiety. Foreign Language Annals. 2005. 38(3): 388-400<\/p>\n
\nGaze aversion to stuttered speech: a pilot study investigating differential visual attention to stuttered and fluent speech. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 2010. 45(2): 133-144.<\/p>\n
\nteaching effectiveness. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 2: 115.<\/p>\n
\nHuman Relations. 31(11):925-938.<\/p>\n