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The Polygraph and
How to Cheat It
By Marcia Wendorf
While still being used by U.S. government agencies to screen
candidates, the value of the polygraph examination has been called into
question.
In November 1985, when a
pudgy, bespectacled young man named Mark Hofmann walked into the office of University of Utah
professor Charles Honts, he appeared calm and relaxed.
Hofmann was in Honts' office
to take a polygraph examination.
Hooked up to the
"lie detector" machine, Hofmann was asked about his involvement in
the grisly bombing murders of a young father named Steve Christensen, and a
beloved grandmother named Kathy Sheets.
Proclaiming his innocence,
Hofmann passed the lie detector test with flying colors.
The reality was that
Hofmann was guilty of both murders, along with dozens of other crimes including
the forging of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare documents.
Following his convictions for
murder, Honts visited Hofmann in prison, and asked him how he had beaten the polygraph
machine.
Hofmann, who was a
stickler for detail, replied that anticipating just such a contingency, he had
set up a blood pressure monitor in his home, and had practiced with it until he
could control his blood pressure at will.
Hofmann also said that he
practiced self-hypnosis, and had been able to hypnotize himself into believing
he was innocent while taking the test.
What
Is a Polygraph?
A polygraph machine
measures and records certain physiological characteristics, including blood
pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity, while a person is asked
and answers a series of questions.
The assumption is that
deceptive answers cause a person's blood pressure to rise, the rates of their
pulse and respirations to elevate, and their skin to become more conductive
electrically through sweat.
The polygraph machine
was invented in 1921 by John Augustus Larson, who was both a medical student at the
University of California, Berkeley, and a police officer.
Larson's protege, Leonarde
Keeler, added galvanic skin response to the machine in 1939, then sold the
device to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
A polygraph machine
consists of two pneumographs which are rubber tubes
filled with air. These are placed around a subject's chest and abdomen to
measure respirations.
A
blood pressure cuff similar to that used in a doctor's office is placed around
the subject's upper arm. Two plates called galvanometers are
placed on the subject's fingertips to measure sweat produced there.
Today,
the old analog polygraph machines shown in movies and on TV have been replaced
by digital ones.
Polygraphs are used by the FBI,
the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
in hiring decisions.
The Las Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) and the Virginia State Police also use the polygraph to
screen new employees.
However,
in 2003, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a report entitled, "The Polygraph and Lie Detection" which found
that when a polygraph is used as a screening tool, "Its accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security
violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its
use in employee security screening in federal agencies."
A report to the U.S. Congress by the Moynihan Commission on Government
Secrecy, concluded that "...
the polygraph is neither scientifically valid nor especially effective beyond
its ability to generate admissions."
Like
Your Mother Said, Be Nice
In
1986, CIA officer and KGB mole Aldrich Ames, was facing a polygraph examination.
He sought advice from his Soviet handler on how to beat the
machine, and he received this simple advice: "Get a good night's sleep, and rest, and go into the test rested
and relaxed. Be nice to the polygraph examiner, develop a rapport, and be
cooperative and try to maintain your calm."
Ames passed this test easily
and passed another one in 1991.
Ames
said, "There's no special magic ...
Confidence is what does it. Confidence and a friendly relationship with the
examiner ... rapport, where you smile and you make him think that you like him."
How
to "Beat the Box"
The
generally acknowledged tactics for beating a polygraph machine are to carefully
control your breathing, and to artificially increase your heart rate during
what are called the "control questions."
These
are innocuous questions that are designed to set a baseline for responses.
By
becoming, in essence upset, during these control questions, it makes the
responses to real questions, and possibly lies, indistinguishable from the
truth.
Another
tactic proposed to beat a polygraph is for the test taker to repeatedly poke
themselves with a sharp object hidden among their clothes or in their shoes.
This
provokes background stress, masking lies from the truth.
Use
of The Polygraph
In United States v. Scheffer (1998),
the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to individual jurisdictions whether polygraph
results could be admitted as evidence in court cases.
New
Mexico is the only state in the U.S. that allows polygraph exam results to be
admissible.
In
the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Delaware, and Iowa,
it is illegal for an employer to order a polygraph either as a condition of
employment, or if an employee has been suspected of wrongdoing.
The Employee
Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) generally prevents
employers from using lie detector tests, either for pre-employment screening or
during the course of employment, with certain exemptions.
In
Canada, with the 1987 decision of R v Béland, the
Supreme Court of Canada rejected the use of polygraph results as evidence in
court. In the Canadian province of Ontario, an employer may not use a
polygraph.
In
2018, Wired Magazine reported that in the U.S., an
estimated 2.5 million polygraph tests are given each year.
The
majority are given to police officers, firemen, paramedics, and state troopers.
The average cost of each test is over $700, making the polygraph business a $2
billion a year industry.
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