How to Tell if a Job Candidate is Lying

THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.

"The eyes are the window to the soul." I looked it up and was surprised to find it comes from the New Testament. I don't know why it surprised me, it just did.

Well, Matthew did not get it completely wrong. It turns out, as I learned while interviewing an expert on deception for my podcast, that they are the windows to the truth or, if you prefer, a lie. There's nothing even the best liar can do to hide it; our eyes react when we lie.

Of course, if we honestly believe that what we are saying is the truth, there will be no reaction. If we have deceived ourselves, we can deceive others. It is only a lie if we know it is a lie.

I was once deposed in a class action lawsuit filed by a client against a vendor. The vendor's attorney accused me of having called one of the vendor's employees a liar. She had the email to "prove" it, or so she thought.

In response to her question, I said, "I did not call him a liar. I clearly wrote, 'They lied.' " Then I explained: He, meaning the employee, would not have known the answer to the question. So, he would have asked a colleague. The colleague may have asked someone else, who may have also had to ask someone. Everyone who provided the information told the truth, as far as they knew. Only the first person, the source of the lie, knew the information was false. That was why I had written they and not he lied. That was one exchange that I clearly won.

In any case, in a totally different way, eyes once revealed a very unfortunate truth. We had a friend who we all knew was making a horrible mistake. His girlfriend was no good. We knew it, but he refused to believe it. They got engaged. He would not listen. They got married. She got pregnant. She gave birth to a healthy baby. The baby had beautiful brown eyes. Our friend and his wife both had blue eyes. It was, therefore, impossible for our friend to be the child's father.

Whether or not the eyes are, in fact, the window to the soul, everyone can decide on their own. There is, however, no doubt, that they are the window to the truth. So, when interviewing a candidate, look at their eyes when they are answering your questions. If something looks suspicious, pupils dilating, tears forming, rapid blinking or eye movement, it may because the candidate's body is warning you not to hire them.

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