fender85 wrote on Jan 25
th, 2007 at 11:16pm:
Hey,
I got a question for you, on control questions such as "Have you ever lied to a loved one?", it is expected that you say no so the polygrapher can have a good idea of what your spikes look like. If I were asked this question I would say yes, who hasn't lied to a loved one? What will this do, and if a polygrapher expects you to say no on something like that, how can he expect you to be honest?
Ok, I will reply to this, even though I think I've addressed this question previously.
Yes, to the question "Have you ever lied to a loved one?" the polygrapher expects you to lie, or at least be unsure of your answer. But it isn't quite that simple. Before even asking you this question, the polygrapher will make you feel like anyone who WOULD lie to loved ones can not be trusted to be truthful with those he/she does not love, such as a boss, an acquaintance, an attorney, or a co-worker. A person whose loved ones can't trust him/her obviously can't be trusted by anyone else, right? And if you can't even be trusted by your loved ones, then you obviously can't be a truthful person, and therefore we don't want you working for our police department. We only hire those whom we think we can trust, not those whose loved ones can not even trust him/her.
Do you see how this works? I don't think I can be more clear than that.
Now, if a person insists on admitting that he/she DOES lie to loved ones, and therefore, by implication, is NOT the kind of person our department wants to hire, then it is up to me, the polygrapher, to make the subject feel like crap because they have lied to loved ones in the past, and to get them to admit that such horrible behavior is not an ongoing habit, but rather a one-time thing, or something they only did when they were a small child and didn't know any better.
Some people think that polygraphers don't care about lying behavior, as long as the subject hasn't done any of the really bad things such as use drugs, reveal secret information, commit felonies, etc. But actually we DO frown upon subjects whose life habits include lying to bosses, cheating, stealing office supplies, falsifying work hours, etc. And I think such habitual behavior might actually affect some polygrapher's judgment of a subject. However, for the purposes of the polygraph exam and hiring decisions, usually only the really bad things in a person's history will be seriously considered, not the "minor" infractions, even if such infractions have been committed frequently.