When a salesman is trying to convince you to buy his product, wouldn't you like to feel confident that all the claims he's making are for real? And what if you're the one doing the selling? Wouldn't it be helpful to know if your prospect is telling you the truth when he gives you his reason for passing on your offer? (After all, if you don't know what his problem is, you're not going to be able to overcome it!)
Well, there is no 100 percent foolproof way to determine whether someone is telling the truth, but the "Reid Technique of Police Interrogation" can help you figure out if you're being lied to. The nine-step technique was developed by a police polygraph (lie detector) operator, John Reid, who observed his subjects' behavior while he was administering the polygraphs.
The scientific basis for the technique is that when the brain is processing information, it sends signals to the body that are manifested in a physical way. The part of the technique that I want to talk about here has to do with the eyes.
Reid discovered that when people are remembering something, their eyes often move to the right... and that when they're thinking (using the portion of the brain that deals with new images, sounds, and thoughts), their eyes often move to the left or upward. To take advantage of this behavior, the detective who will be doing the interrogating first engages the subject in some simple conversation, asking questions to establish a pattern for his involuntary movements. Then he moves into the "real" questions regarding the crime.
If, for example, the detective asks the subject where he was on the night the crime was committed and the subject's eyes move to the left, that could indicate he's trying to fabricate a story. On the other hand, if his eyes move to the right, he may simply be remembering (truthfully) where he was.
So when you ask your assistant why he missed an important deadline, or you ask your teenager why he didn't call to let you know he'd be late... you might be able to use this technique to decide whether or not you should believe the answer.
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