In response to our pal the polygrapher, who plans to improve his voodoo science with help from George... (hmm... if he's looking to make the test much more accurate, standardized, etc., what does that say about the test as currently constructed?):
>>...In fact, this site was started by a guy who took and failed a pre-employment polygraph examination.<<
Without trying to speak for him, check the other posts, nonombre. Said founder asserts he was one of your "rare" false positives, and I support him on that...
>>False positives do happen, but I believe they are far more rare than the people on this site would have you believe.<<
Even one is too many, and there exists no reasonable recourse for a false positive. Thus, you have a pseudoscience falsely screwing people, and we don't even know which ones. Is that what we want?
Remember, there are false negatives, too. Aldrich Ames pulled off two of these, one while under active investigation for spying! How did he do it? His Russkie handlers said to relax. Period. He did, he skewed the test, and he kept on passing secrets for however long...
>>...I was also terrified when I took my first polygraph examination. I was mostly afraid because I was hiding a childhood mistake.
I failed the exam, I was caught.<< Now, interrogators tell you that they always want the truth, but as is mentioned in TLBTLD (read it 3 times), if you're truthful on control questions (which this "mistake" business seems to be), you're more likely to fail as a result. Plus, all truthful responses make it such that there is no comparison capability between truths and nontruths whatsoever, as if that concept even mattered. Coming full circle, physiological responses to "lies" on control questions are never some form of diametric opposite of a "truthful" trace, especially to a relevant question but also to any other control question, as the two types of questions are different. One you know to be important, and the other you may well know not to be. Following me on this?
>>Luckily, the examiner talked to me and gave me a chance to redeem myself. I told the truth and passed the next examination. That was 17 years ago.<< I don't believe this for a second. Confess, and be saved! I am your salvation! Here is your chance to lay bare your sins to me, the polygrapher priest! I can absolve you in the name of the Pneumograph, and of the Sphygmomanometer, and of the Finger Sweat Doohickie, Amen!
>>My advice? Tell the examiner the truth. Tell him/her everything. Pass the test, and see your dream come true...<<
Tell them you know their shell game, or better: tell them you've read all about the poly, every facet. You did so to be better prepped, which would not be a lie. Be polite, but do it. It'll throw them off, for they'll know that YOU know their interrogation techniques. Just my advice.
>>Good luck, my friend...<<
The polygrapher is never your friend. Even if I, for example, had to pass a poly to get a job, did so, and then worked with the polygrapher as part of that job, I would grow eyes in the back of my head to watch him. And he wouldn't be coming to any barbecues I have. I don't have personal relationships with snake oil salesmen...