In the eye of the beholder: ISU researchers use eye-tracking technology to detect deception

AMES, Iowa – The average person has about a 50-50 chance of knowing when someone is lying. Iowa State University researchers are using eye-tracking technology to improve those odds, specifically for interviews conducted online.

Joey George, John D. DeVries Endowed Chair in Business and a professor of information systems at Iowa State, says people think they can detect deception, but they are often looking at the wrong thing.

“People around the world think that gaze aversion or not maintaining eye contact is a cue of deception, but it’s absolutely not true,” George said.

Iowa State’s College of Business is one of about a dozen in the world to have access to a neuroscience lab equipped with eye-tracking technology and an EEG machine for research. Watch the above video to see how researchers are using the equipment to help businesses weed out potential employees who are dishonest during interviews.