Usually, every second client of the Forensic expert kollegium asks the question: “Is it possible to fool a polygraph?” and receives a standard answer: “A polygraph is a biomedical device that registers the psychophysiological indicators of the interviewed person, which cannot be deceived (the device registers the indicators as they are), you can deceive a low-skilled polygraph examiner”.
In the professional community, all specialists providing polygraph examination services are divided into three categories according to the degree of mastery of their professional skills:
- The so-called "polygraph operators".
- Polygraph examiners.
- Experts in the field of forensic psychological expertise.
“Polygraph operators” take express courses that do not impose any requirements on the basic higher education of the student and introduce them to the basics of psychophysiology, the device of the polygraph, perhaps sell the right to use the “patent for the polygraph examination method” or the “copyright methods of using a polygraph”. After completing such courses, a certificate is issued. As a rule, “polygraph operators” rely entirely on computer algorithms for processing reactograms purchased from their polygraph teachers and are deeply confident in their own ability to distinguish truth from lies and in the infallibility of their conclusions. The most important business ability of such an “operator” is to convince the client in the consistency of their skills as well as to inspire by unscientific methods (from “I said so” to “the polygraph never deceives”) the idea of the impossibility of making the slightest mistake in giving one’s conclusions. Due to the limited knowledge and increased sense of unreasonable self-confidence, polygraph examination with such “operators” takes place in an express mode and usually last from one and a half to two hours. Regardless of the type of client, the questions for each examination topic are usually the same. For example, one of the polygraph examiners asked all his interviewees whether they had ever discussed the circumstances of their intimate life with “venal women”; perhaps once for some interviewee it was a question “straight to the point”, but most of the falsely accused of adultery perceived this question as extremely inadequate. Given the nature of the teaching at such widespread “online conman” courses, “polygraph operators” in the majority make errors of judgment with a false accusatory bias. In expert practice, there were cases when the advertised “polygraph operator” gave an accusatory conclusion only because the interviewed person coughed periodically due to a respiratory disease during the presentation of certain questions (the presence of a respiratory disease is an absolute contraindication for a polygraph examination). Most of the recommendations on the Internet on the topic “How to fool a polygraph?” just set the goal of deceiving such “operators”, therefore “polygraph operators” are powerless against modern measures of the polygraph counteraction, except that they can determine the use of such “antediluvian” methods of counteracting polygraph examination as a button in a shoe, biting the tongue or squeezing the “anal balls” with the sphincter. During the coronavirus epidemic, most polygraph examiners were left without the possibility of earning money due to the introduced self-isolation requirements, therefore, in search of new ways of income, a large number of professional secrets of polygraph examiners and, accordingly, methods of effectively countering the polygraph were published on the Internet, and therefore, at present time, "polygraph operators" in the general case are not able to solve any of the declared tasks. Realizing this, “polygraph operators” usually do not formalize any contractual relationship with the client in writing, take payment in cash and do not provide the client with any reasonable opinion in writing in order to avoid further prosecution for poor quality services or committing fraudulent activities.
Polygraph examiners receive additional education on the basis of higher education, as a rule, in the field of medicine or psychology, and, accordingly, have at least two higher educations. Polygraph examiners know that there are no specific psychophysiological signs of deceit, so they never give conclusions like “a lie was revealed” or “the interviewee told the truth.” As a rule, polygraph examiners follow the strictly regulated rules of their school, conduct a pre-test conversation for at least 30-40 minutes, and also conduct a post-examination conversation with the interviewee, always perform the minimum regulated number of research and verification tests, as a result of which the examination lasts at least 2.5 -3 hours. In addition, as part of the pre-test conversation and when discussing questions before screening tests, the polygraph examiner devotes quite a lot of time to discussing the wording of the questions themselves with the interviewee, so that the person under examination does not have the opportunity to rationalize and give an unreliable answer. Depending on the result of processing research tests, the polygraph examiner always chooses the method for calculating reactograms and, accordingly, always presents both the reactograms themselves and the results of their calculation in their written conclusion. This ensures the transparency of the course of the study itself and the possibility of verifying the validity of the conclusions by other polygraph examiners. In his conclusions, the polygraph examiner operates with the concepts of the significance of the test topic for the interviewed person, while always making a reservation that the results of a special psychophysiological study are of a probabilistic nature, since they reflect the imprint of the interviewee's memory about the facts investigated as a result of the test. At the same time, an ordinary polygraph examiner is not able to draw any conclusions regarding persons with impaired higher mental functions, suffering from psychopathic diseases, persons prone to suggestibility or fantasizing, as well as persons subjected to immersion in trance states (due to the effects of hypnosis, self-relaxation or self-hypnosis), which imposes significant restrictions on giving reliable conclusions, taking into account the fact that recently the methods of psychological counteraction to a polygraph study have received the most widespread use. At present, any person who is knowledgeable in the field of psychophysiology, trance techniques or self-regulation of mental states (advanced yoga, special training in the field of psychophysiological counteraction) can either force the polygraph examiner to make a mistake in the conclusions, or, in the case of a more competent specialist, decide that it is not possible to give a conclusion.
Experts in the field of forensic psychological expertise know that any of the generally recognized methods of psychological examination, including a special psychophysiological study on a contact polygraph, gives results with a reliability of no more than 85-90%. Therefore, when using two alternative research methods, the reliability of the conclusions increases to 95%, when using three or more independent methods, with the consistency of the research results, the reliability of the conclusions reaches 99% or more. An expert in the field of forensic psychological expertise must, directly or indirectly, examine the preservation of the higher mental functions of the person being interviewed, perform tests for suggestibility and fantasizing, and conduct psychological profiling of the personality. For each interrogated person, an expert in the field of forensic psychological expertise will compose purely individually questions that operate exclusively on the conceptual base of the subject, based on his life experience and can be understood by the interviewed person unambiguously, without the slightest possibility of ambiguity or rationalization of any of the words spoken. At the same time, an expert in the field of forensic psychological expertise examines psychopathic personalities in the same way as mentally healthy people, not allowing the use of either highly intellectual evasions or parody of emotional states. The same applies to persons subjected to suggestion or fantasizing: the cleaning of directly perceived information during the event being investigated by the examination from the details introduced due to the processes of mental activity requires much more time for research, but gives a significantly more reliable result than the study of the existing “memory print” of the interviewee. As a rule, a psychological examination is taking from 4 hours to several days, depending on the topic and scope of the study, the number of questions raised for resolution. The main features of a comprehensive psychological examination in comparison with a standard special psychophysiological study are that the methods of counteracting a polygraph are covered on the Internet in sufficient detail, at the same time, the essence of most methods of psychological examination is known only to a narrowly limited circle of specialists, especially since there are no ways to counter these methods in wide access. The effectiveness of the psychological examination is also facilitated by the fact that the expert owns an average of twenty or more methods for detecting ideal trace information and uses specific research methods depending on the type of personality of the respondent, his line of behavior and the specific information being studied. Often, the person being interviewed does not suspect what methods are being used to study the information stored by him at the current time, which makes the actual opposition to the examination extremely ineffective. If there is a contact polygraph examination of a polygraph examiner conducted by another polygraph examiner, the reliability of the conclusions depends on which of the given pair (the respondent or the interviewer) is the more competent specialist. In any other case during the psychological examination the expert always has the overwhelming advantage: a special study is always carried out with a constant video recording of the entire examination using a high-speed and high-resolution video camera synchronized in time with the rest of the measuring systems, so the expert conducts data processing through painstaking data analysis after an interview with the interviewee. The interviewed person has neither physical nor mental resources, no matter how highly intelligent and highly qualified psychologist he is, in order to immaculately legend the rental situation in real time (with a frequency of fixing reactions up to milliseconds) according to all recorded parameters and protocols. Currently, neural networks have learned to generate video information that can mislead an average Internet user, but not a professional forensic psychologist.
Therefore, to the client’s question: “Is it possible to fool a polygraph?” at present tme it is still possible to categorically and reliably answer: “A polygraph is a medical and biological device, and it is impossible to deceive an expert in the field of forensic psychological expertise!”
Psychological studies, including polygraph examinations, are carried out at the Forensic expert kollegium in special premises at: Minsk, Yakubava St., 80, entrance from the side of the bike path (Svisloch river), 15th floor.
You can order a special psychological study at the Forensic expert kollegium at: Minsk, Zhukovskaga St., 11A, 4th floor
or by phone +375 (17) 317 04 71; +375 (17) 317 04 72; +375 (17) 317 04 73; +375 (17) 317 04 74; +375 (17) 317 04 76; ; +375 (29) 109 60 11; +375 (29) 397 31 71; +375 (44) 588 60 11
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