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%% How to Beat a Lie-Detector %%
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%% By _The Reflex_ %%
%% An Official_Omnipotent,_Inc._Production %%
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This file would be useful to you if you were caught by the Gestapo, uh...I
mean Bell Security (B. S. for short).
The polygraph test was invented by William Moulton Marston, who was,
strangely enough, also the creator of the Wonder Woman comic strip (under the
name Charles Moulton). The standard polygraph records only three distinct
vital signs. A blood-pressure. Wires attached to the fingers measure changes
in electrical resistance of the skin due to sweating. Rubber straps around the
torso measure the breathing rate. This information is displayed as four
squiggles on a moving strip of graph paper.
Whether or not you believe a polygraph provides useful information (most
psychologists have their doubts), there is a good chance you'll be asked to
take a polygraph test. The vast majority of lie-detector tests are
administered for employee screening -- "Have you been using the WATS line for
personal calls?" and so forth -- not for police work. In 'A Tremor In the
Blood: Uses and Abuses of the Lie Detector' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981),
polygraph critic David Thoreson Lykken estimates that as many as one million
polygraph examinations are performed on Americans each year. In criminal cases
however, even the manifestly innocent may be asked to take a polygraph test.
All Yakima County, Washington, rape victims are required to take the test;
refusal means the case will not be prosecuted.
At best, all the polygraph can indicate is a heightened emotional reaction
to a question. It cannot specify what kind of an emotional reaction.
Polygraphers try to design question formats so guilt-induced nervousness will
be the only emotional invoked and so the subject's reaction to relevant
questions can be compared to other, "control" questions.
THE LIE CONTROL TEST
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This is the question format used in most police investigations. It
usually starts with a card trick devised by two pioneer polygraphers, John E.
Reid and F. E. Inbau.
The polygrapher hooks the subject to the polygraph and takes out a deck of
cards. The polygrapher tells the subject that he must "calibrate" the
polygraph with a simple test. He fans the deck and asks the subject to select
a card. The subject is told to look at the card but not to show it or mention
its name. The polygrapher tells the subject to answer "no" to every question
asked about the card. "Is it a black card?" the polygrapher asks. "Is it a
high card?" and so on. After each "no" the polygrapher scrutinizes the
tracings and fiddles with the dials. If the no answer is incorrect, the
polygrapher disagrees. The field is soon narrowed to one card -- and it is the
correct card.
Needless to say, the polygrapher uses a trick deck. The point is to
foster confidence in the machine. After identifying the card, the polygrapher
comments that the subject's reactions are particularly easy to read and segues
into the interrogation.
Three types of questions are used in a lie-control test. The entire list
is read to the subject well in advance of the test. The start of a typical
interrogation might run like this:
1. Is you name Sarah Elkins?
2. Is Paris the capital of France?
3. Have you ever failed to report more than $50 of tip, gambling or gift
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