Whether it’s for a job interview or a criminal case, a polygraph test can be a very stressful and unpleasant experience. However, most people don’t know that these tests can be cheated quite easily.
The secret is to make the machine’s baseline go haywire. Then the differences between truth and lies will be much less apparent.
Bite your tongue hard
Lie detectors, or polygraph tests, are a form of psychological screening that examines your physiological responses to certain questions. They can help determine whether you’re lying and if so, how much you are.
While many scientists deem them pseudoscience, they’re still often used by national security agencies and even some employers. They’re also often a part of background checks, and you may be hooked up to one during a job interview or due to a criminal investigation.
Various techniques have been proposed for beating the test, including controlled breathing and relaxation exercises. But they’re not one hundred percent foolproof. Even if you’re completely honest, the fact that you’re nervous can cause your heart rate to spike and mask your truthfulness. A good way to get around this is by biting your tongue hard and thinking about something exciting or scary. Doing so will trigger other physiological responses and trick the machine into thinking you’re lying.
Make your baseline go haywire
Lie detector tests, also known as polygraph tests, aim to detect deception by measuring physiological responses, such as heart rate, respiration and sweat. They work on the assumption that lying causes stress and increases these physical indicators. However, a skilled polygraph examiner can detect non-verbal cues as well. As a result, truthful people can be falsely branded as liars.
The polygraph isn’t a foolproof device, and there are various techniques people use to cheat it. They range from the physical (biting your tongue hard) to the mental, such as imagining stressful events in your life. Some criminals even fake internal injuries to spike their vital signs.Get more info on this Lie Detector Test website.
To beat a polygraph test, you must first alter the examiner’s baseline of your vital signs. This will make the control questions appear false and prevent the machine from detecting your lies. You can achieve this by changing your heart rate, breathing and sweat levels by thinking up scary or upsetting thoughts.
Change your breathing pattern
Some people believe that there are ways to cheat a lie detector test. Some of these techniques are physical and some are mental. Many of them involve changing your breathing pattern to mask signals that you are lying. Despite the fact that they can work in some cases, these methods should not be relied upon.
The examiner will ask you control questions first to get a baseline reading of your heart rate, breathing, and sweating levels. Some Internet articles suggest biting your tongue while answering these questions to skew the results and make it harder for an investigator to compare responses to relevant questions.
Other internet sources recommend using antiperspirant to impede the machine’s ability to read your sweat glands. Other tips include daydreaming or imagining your favorite place to help you relax and keep your physiological responses from being skewed by the examiner’s questions. Experienced polygraph examiners are trained to detect these kinds of countermeasures.
Put a tack in your shoe
The tack-in-the-shoe trick is one of the oldest polygraph-cheating tips. It involves stepping on a tack or sharp object during control questions to ramp up your heart and breathing rates, as well as skin conductivity levels. This can make it difficult for the polygraph to distinguish truth from lies.
The trouble is that this method can also backfire. Clenching your anal sphincter, for example, won’t help much because most polygraphs have super-sensitive seat pads that can detect even the slightest clenching. Putting a tack in your shoe is another no-go, as the pain will cause you to increase your breathing and heart rate, making it hard for the machine to tell the difference between truth and lie.
Sadly, while some people claim to have found ways to cheat the polygraph test, most of these methods are not effective. Most experts agree that the best way to beat a polygraph is to answer truthfully. Skilled liars can manipulate the machines, but it is still impossible to fool them completely.
