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Polygraph Analysis

Decent Essays

Just the word polygraph makes me picture someone being interrogated in an underground bunker in some out of this world spy film. While I know this isn’t traditionally the case, we can thank Hollywood for that instant visual. In all honesty, my view of the polygraph has never been a positive one and reading many articles written by folks who are much more versed on the subject, their opinions don’t seem to be any more positive than mine. John Lykken, a polygraph expert and a professor at the University of Minnesota, is pretty blunt when it comes to his opinions about the tool. "Polygraphs are little more accurate than flipping a coin."(Stein, 1995) If this is the case, why are they used? If they aren’t accurate, how do double agents such …show more content…

In the second round of questioning, the polygraph operator probably shouldn’t have been so friendly and engaging with Ames. This definitely helped put him at ease which could have resulted in readings that looked normal even if he was not being truthful. Why is this the case? Many believe that there are flaws with how the test is designed. That is by having control questions and non-control questions. Drew C. Richardson from the F.B.I. contributed to a report that essentially says that the Control Question Test is severely flawed. At a conference he stated that, (Stein, 1995) “he had successfully taught his 10-year-old son the techniques to beat the Control Question Test.” From my research, I was able to find many sources that provide techniques to beat a polygraph. All of them seem to reference things such as controlling your breathing or finding ways to get your heart rate up. In a paper put together by AntiPolygraph.org, their first tip regarding how to beat a polygraph is very similar to the suggestions provided by Ames’ Russian handler. They state, (Maschke, 2000) “Your polygrapher’s subjective opinion of you may influence the outcome of your polygraph interrogation. Look your best. Make sure you have a conservative haircut; dress professionally, polish your shoes. If you’re a woman, wear makeup, but not too much. Be friendly. Smile. Keep good eye contact with your polygrapher, but don’t stare. Your polygrapher may interpret …show more content…

The closest I have ever come was a game my friend had in early 90’s that was supposed to be able to detect if you were lying or not. If I remember correctly, it only monitored your heart rate. If your heart rate went up suddenly when you were asked a question, it would alert the other players that you were lying. Essentially we used it to ask our friends really awkward questions to hopefully figure out if they were telling the truth or not. I was probably in 5th or 6th grade then, so most of our questions revolved around figuring out the girls our friends had a crush on. While the game wasn’t very accurate, it still made me nervous every time I was to be questioned. I’m sure I would have similar feelings if I had to take a real polygraph test. Richard Nixon is quoted as saying, (Smith, 2015) “I don’t know anything about lie detectors other than they scare the hell out of people!” I think most of us would

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