I was talking to a friend the other day who knows a lot of polygraph casualties.  One of his trusted friends (I'll call him "Bill") failed a polygraph and lost all his clearances.  Bill believed he failed the question "Would you be able to keep our secrets even if it would mean the death of a loved one?"  I told my friend this sounded like a control question, and if anything, Bill might not have shown enough of a reaction to this question.  However, I've never heard of this question before as a control.  Any thoughts?

Onesimus,

The question, "Would you be able to keep our secrets even if it would mean the death of a loved one?" is an example of a "hypothetical control" question (see p. 104 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, 3rd ed.).