Do The Questions Matter?

[Dr_Shakalu]

I'm so glad that I found this website.  My question is: when you truthfully answer a question during the polygraph, does the person giving the test care what your answer is or is he just looking for whether you are lying?  Also, does the test questions and answers get back to the background investigator or does he just get told whether you passed or not?  Thanks, The Doctor.

[T.M. Cullen]

I'm so glad that I found this website.  My question is: when you truthfully answer a question during the polygraph, does the person giving the test care what your answer is or is he just looking for whether you are lying?

Doctor,

Have you even been listening?

The examiners CAN NOT detect whether you are lying or not, and they know this.  So, why would they be looking to see if you are lying or not?  

They test to see if you react to any of the RELEVANT questions.  If you do, They then try to find out HOW MUCH THEY CAN GET YOU TO SAY about it.  They do this by repeatedly claiming you are having trouble with the question and is an unequivocal indication of DECEPTION (which is not true).  They claim you must be hiding something and that you must "get everything off your chest".  The more you say, the better your chances of passing.  But they are just trying to trick you into volunteering information.

Think of it as an interrogation and NOT a test for truthfulness.

Also, does the test questions and answers get back to the background investigator or does he just get told whether you passed or not?

I don't know about LE preemployment, but with CIA/NSA/FBI preemployment tests, they don't even do a BI unless you pass the polygraph.  So whatever you end up being falsely accused of during the poly will NOT be followed up and verified.

What a joke!

TC