A lie detector is not about technology.
A lie detector is not about technology.
Alexander Strunin
Nowadays, not only the level of professional training, but also the moral and psychological characteristics, ethical standards, and cultural values of a person play an important role in assessing the compliance of a candidate for a vacant position with the requirements or an employee with the job occupied.
These qualities of human character require disclosure when checking employees suspected of committing certain actions or acts that have caused damage to the company, as well as for diagnosing the moral and psychological climate both in departments and in the entire team as a whole. For these purposes, operational measures can be used using intelligence methods of checking people (cost of work is about $200-800) or testing on a “lie detector” (polygraph) with a relatively low cost of this test — from $25 to $200.
The effectiveness of a polygraph test is often disputed, but most estimates place it between 70 and 90%, and sometimes higher. Another impressive feature is the speed of a polygraph test, which lasts only 1.5-3 hours, of which 15 minutes are spent recording all physiological indicators, and the rest of the time, before and after the recording, is spent interviewing the operator with the subject. The result of the test is a document that is created with the help of the person being tested, and it is very difficult for him to move away from the facts revealed right in his presence. This is the strength of an objective recording of what a person experiences regarding the questions he was asked.
But there are also weaknesses in the test that should not be overlooked. Human reactions such as heart rate, breathing, and others are universal and manifest themselves not only in answers to questions, but also when laughing, coughing, in pain, or taking medications. Therefore, the test will give the desired effect if the polygraph tests are as close as possible to the conditions of a regular interview.
There are three types of questions used in such tests:
• significant, or target questions;
• neutral, or questions to create a background;
• control questions.
In order to distinguish reactions to neutral and target questions, the so-called neutral-target method is used, which was developed by the classic of printing Makstan back in 1917. It was a standard method for checking for a long time. The essence of the neutral-target method is as follows. A group of questions is taken:
1. Neutral, irrelevant to the matter.
2. Significant, leading to the determination of a person's attitude to a particular matter.
In different versions they can be mixed up: for example, one significant, one neutral; or they can be in zones: for example, 5 neutral, then 5 critical. All this is recorded on paper and on a soundtrack, and then the operators analyze how the person reacted to the group of neutral questions, how — to the critical group and establish whether there is a difference or not.
It is believed that people who tell the truth will react the same in all cases, since they calmly perceive both neutral and critical questions, because critical questions have nothing to do with them.
The second questioning technique, which includes five control questions, is the most common method of control in the investigation of specific cases, when something specific has already happened. This test includes control questions formulated in such a way as to make an innocent person noticeably change his physiological testimony. The technique also contains significant questions that evoke a corresponding reaction in guilty persons. The idea is to measure the general inactivity of the individual in this way, compare it with the reaction to the significant questions. If no clear difference is observed, then it is considered that the test has not given an unambiguous result and there is no need to repeat it. Such control questions, as a rule, cover significant periods of life, which is more likely to generate uncertainty and raise doubts about the truthfulness of their answers. As a rule, the material for formulating control questions is collected during preliminary interviews or other actions related to the study of the person being tested by the polygraph.The next questioning technique is the hidden question test (HQT). This type of questioning is based on completely different premises than the neutral-target question test or the control question test. This test, in particular, aims to find out such knowledge about the crime that is available only to the persons who committed it. Detail or particularity plays a key role here.
A polygraph test can only be conducted if the examiner has information about details that are well known only to the guilty party.
A preliminary interview is considered a mandatory component of the polygraph test procedure. During the interview, the person is introduced to the details of the upcoming test. This is somewhat reminiscent of the instructions given by a psychologist in any experiments aimed at identifying common indicators.
In almost all polygraph tests, the questions prepared are discussed in advance. This ensures that both parties interpret the questions in the same way, which will increase the subject's sense of responsibility and fear of giving false testimony. Success largely depends on the subject's internal readiness to cooperate with the operator. If there is no such readiness, then it is very difficult to obtain the information necessary to formulate targeted, critical questions.The next stage is usually carried out immediately after the preliminary interview or immediately after recording reactions to the first series of questions. The best start is a stimulation test. It comes down to identifying a card with a number or word that the person being tested has selected from a deck.
The stimulation test is always carried out under the guise of a TSV and demonstrates the ability of the polygraph to indicate the selected card. After the stimulation test, questions are asked using one of the methods discussed above. The final part of the work with the person being tested begins when the recording is shown to him and the results are analyzed together with him. At this point, the examiner must take into account the fact that a person’s reaction is manifested not only in the testimony recorded by the polygraph, but also in his gestures, facial expressions, and intonation when summing up the results.
Naturally, the results of a polygraph test are not the ultimate truth, but they may prove to be the missing factor that will allow enterprise managers to solve production problems, including those related to ensuring economic security.