Lie detector - why we cheat ourselves and others

A lie is an endless ocean in which you can easily drown. People lie to relatives, to each other, to themselves. Why is another question. While we are satisfied with this game, everything is calm. But when we understand that we are being cheated purposefully, I want to get evidence. The desire of people to find out the truth, confirmed by numbers, led to the invention of the lie detector. How does it work? Who, except for spies on it today check? Is it possible to deceive this device? But the main question is different: how to turn on the internal polygraph and stop fooling yourself.

What is a lie detector

Lie detector (polygraph) is a complex system for assessing the veracity of information, consisting of sensitive equipment and data decoding specialist. The word "polygraph" translates to "multi-writer." This is a multichannel oscilloscope that throughout the test measures and records blood pressure, respiration in the area of the diaphragm, cardiogram, the electrical resistance of the skin and the reaction of movement.

The polygraph examiner is 2 in 1, and a subtle psychologist, and a certified specialist who can work on a polygraph. Profession requires extensive experience and ongoing learning new skills. An experienced polygraph examiner is a person with 10 years and more experience in this field. There are experts that work experience of 40 years. Polygraph examiner is an important link in the work. It is he who develops the system of questions, decrypts the data and gives the final conclusion.

The main thing you need to know about the polygraph: the device actually deciphering is not a lie, but emotions and related body reactions to the fact of fraud. He does not give any predictions. The findings relate to past events in the subject's life.

Who today is checked for a lie detector

In most countries, the results of printing tests are not accepted by the court. But in the commercial and domestic sphere for them found many uses. Firms offer polygraph services for verification:

Personnel at work and in the process of work. Most often they check the financially responsible employees and those who own the business secret of the organization. When applying for a job in a solid organization, they can check all candidates in order to find out: how well the education and work experience stated in the resume is true. Regular checks of working personnel are usually frightening in order to prevent theft or leakage of important information.
Personal guards, servants or babysitters before hiring in private homes. Many employers do not believe that the recommendations are true. Or the cleaner, the gardener, the cook, the personal assistant could abuse the confidence of the previous owners so skillfully that the employers didn’t guess about it. Especially often and carefully check the babysitters, who have to spend whole days with children.
Husband or wife, on suspicion of cheating or treason. On sites offering services of a polygraph, there are photos of a happy family. Apparently, making sure of the loyalty of the spouse, the husband and wife should live happily ever after. In fact, after a humiliating verification procedure, we are not talking about any family happiness. The price of the issue is a property that can not be divided (or will have to be divided) after the divorce.
Teenagers on suspicion of taking drugs. Companies are reluctant to check teenagers, and children under 14 cannot be tested at all. But if parents have reason to check the child, then the test takes place under their control.
People suspected of a crime. Gossip and mistrust sometimes spoil the life of a person worse than a prison sentence. Therefore, the suspect himself can order a check to prove his innocence.

Check checking strife. If in everyday life there are small errors in decoding the results, then the inaccuracies of the polls in law enforcement agencies, tax service, police cost much more. Therefore, polygraph examiners of the highest level work there. Check:

Employees with access to state secrets.
Representatives of security forces suspected of abusing inmates.
Criminals suspected of terrorism.
Witnesses or those suspected of having committed serious crimes, such as rape of minors, embezzlement on a particularly large scale or murder. In court, the results can not be presented, but the investigation itself can go the other way.

How is the study on the lie detector and whether it is possible to deceive him

The check takes place in several stages. First, the polygraph examiner talks to the employer in order to understand what he wants to know. Nevertheless, when applying for a job, there will be some questions, while with adultery - others. Then the specialist simply talks to the future subject, outlines a range of interests, possible behavioral reactions. So the polygraph examiner should not only masterfully cope with complex equipment, but also be able to talk to any interlocutor.

The procedure itself checks in most cases takes place in a specially equipped room with good sound insulation. First, the subject is worn:

Cardiograph tapes.
Metal devices for several fingers.
Wristbands on the wrist.

Additionally can supply:

Special mats with sensors on the seat of the chair and under the feet of the subject.
Blood pressure sensor.
Sensor fixing the expansion of the pupils.

Check lasts about 1.5-3 hours. Of course, they do not shout at the test subject, they do not openly press, but the very fact of testing causes great excitement and discomfort. The purpose of the polygraph examiner is to ask questions that will knock the subject out of a rut, make him give out true body reactions. Then the result will be as close to reality as possible. After the check, the specialist will need some time to decrypt. Previously, the result was issued in the form of a familiar cardiogram on a strip of paper. Today the equipment is equipped with a computer and a monitor. The client receives the results on a flash drive or on a disk.

Online today there are many recommendations on how to fool a polygraph. Polygraph examiners say that no buttons in shoes, lack of sleep, tranquilizers will not help to deceive the smart system. Of course, intelligence intelligence officers learn this all their lives and can imitate the body's necessary reactions. But that's another story.

The most important question: why do you need to deceive the polygraph? Yet the procedure is time consuming and expensive. Pay money for an experiment? As you wish. If you are already suspected of a violation, it means that you do not know how to hide and believably lie. Scouts, investigators, experienced personnel officers or customs officers, for example, are professionally able to recognize lies by facial expression. If you could not deceive a person, you can not and the car. A refusal to pass the test is automatically considered a confession of guilt.

The history of verifications

The desire to verify the truthfulness of words appeared at the moment when primitive people began to live together, lead a life, create families, and fight. The first "lie detectors" were the shamans. They really were subtle psychologists, and the test was furnished as a theatrical performance. When a decorated demon, dressed up in terrible clothes, was thrashing around the suspect, beating up drums, shouting out spells, the deceiver sooner or later lost his nerve. Sometimes after long dances, the shamans sniffed at the suspect and handed down a verdict on the intensity of the smell.

Then there were the wise men or jesters described in domestic fairy tales or parables. Both those and others were also familiar with psychology, knew human weaknesses, were able to ask a question, to draw a conclusion not from what was heard, but from their observations. But in ordinary life, everything was more prosaic. Depending on the level of development or lifestyle of the region lie tests were distinguished by sophisticated ingenuity and cruelty. The most effective polygraphs were considered torture. But there were more humane methods. In ancient times used:

Rice flour. The suspect took her in his mouth, held it for a while. The guilty person suspended saliva production, and the flour remained dry for a long time.
Raw eggs. The suspect should have held an egg in his hand. Guilty was nervous, squeezing fingers and shells cracked.
Pulsation of the cervical artery. A knowledgeable person applied his fingers to the accused's cervical artery. The accused was asked questions, the guilt was determined by changing the pulse rate.

In fact, All tests were based on the identification of the same reactions of the body that today are checked on a lie detector. But the desire to learn the truth remained in the plane of amateur psychology, until in 1895 Cesare Lombroso invented a polygraph. The first apparatus worked on measuring pressure and was used by detectives to solve crimes. Since 1913 in America, psychologist William Morston has purposefully studied the work of the polygraph.

In addition to the police polygraph interested in the militarywho used it to identify spies and prepare their own agents, so the equipment and methods have been constantly improved. Today, the United States is the number one country for the supply of experienced polygraph examiners. But its schools, graduating specialists, are in many countries of the world. After all, graduates of the same group, who studied in the same conditions and passed the exams perfectly, can act according to different methods and get different results.

Why do we cheat others

Neuroscientists made an interesting conclusion: the moment when a child starts to deceive is a transition to a new level of psychological development. Usually falls on the age of 4 years. From birth, the baby does not separate his own "I" from his parents and the outside world. He closes his eyes and thinks that he hid (he does not see anything, it means that others do not see it). He does not deceive, because he thinks: everyone saw the same thing as he. But when he realizes that others might not see everything he sawthen the truth begins. Psychologists say "the child identifies its own Self." And here you do not know whether to rejoice or be upset.

In the world of adult versions of the lie becomes more.

There is an innocent lie.. And it is called politeness. When a colleague asks for opinions about a terrible blouse in our opinion, we give her a compliment. If in such a situation we begin to give sincere answers, we will break the rules of politeness. Relations with a person will be ruined, there will be resentment, there will be pain, fights can also be. Psychologists say that a lie is a kind of social glue that helps us coexist in society. This is an obligatory element of the culture of high society, an obligatory quality of representatives of commerce, where deception, slyness, silence are the usual background of business tools.
There is a pathological lie. People lie endlessly and selflessly, and the dimensions of lies do not correspond to the effect they want to achieve. This is the notorious Munchausen pulling themselves by the hair out of the swamp. And often pathological liars are people with developed intelligence. After all, you need a lot of mind. To build a complex system of deception. Why do they do it? As a rule, such liars are big egocentrists. Even realizing that clumsy lies will quickly be revealed, they are trying to be the center of attention at any cost.
But there is a dangerous lie in its meaninglessness.. We cheat not only colleagues and relatives. We are time to doctors and psychotherapists. To people on whose work our life depends. Such a lie makes one doubt whether we are rational beings? Or is a lie a hereditary quality? Cheaters are not born. But you can genetically inherit a behavioral base that promotes frequent use of deception.

Harvard University scientists found that 80% of the lies concern ourselves. They even introduced such a concept: an egotic lie concerning exaggerated self-esteem. Often, deception is closely intertwined with the desire not only to embellish reality, but also to manipulate others. So why are we in time? There are various reasons for this.

The desire to look better in the eyes of others. The most striking example is social networks. No wonder they say that on Facebook or on Instagram we live the life we dream of.
Parenting under total parental control. Most of the prohibitions give rise to the desire to violate them and teach them to lie, so that the violation should not be punished. When teenagers masterfully master household fraud, they cannot stop all their life. They lie even where there is no reason.
Unconscious desire to protect themselves from something bad. Fear of punishment, unwillingness to deal with the consequences, the fear of open conflict make them follow the path of least resistance.
Desire to keep control over others. Parents or elderly people sometimes invent illnesses for themselves, so as not to lose control over their children with the help of guilt feelings.
We wish to protect the people we love.. Although this statement is contradictory. On the one hand - a lie for the benefit, on the other - the inability of the other to learn how to cope with pain independently. There is even an aphorism on this score: some believe that they have a good heart, in fact, they have weak nerves.

Lying often brings benefits in the near future. But for a long relationship, it is not suitable. All the more insulting that we manage to constantly deceive the main person in our life - ourselves.

Why do we fool ourselves

We talk to ourselves every minute and most often deceive ourselves. Every day we find the opportunity to ignore our desires, do not recognize that we do not live as we dream. Why? Because we are afraid to learn the painful truth. Gradually, it becomes a way of life, destroying career, relationships, health. In fact, self-deception takes a lot of energy. But a true look at the situation of this energy frees. Therefore, it is worth considering how much energy is spent on denial, self-deception and anger, instead of spending it for happiness.

Another reason we fool ourselves is misconception about the current state of affairs. And this is not peculiar to individuals, but to whole nations. Opinion polls show that Americans, on average, assess their state of affairs better than they really are. But the Slavs tend to think that things are worse than average. Carl Jung invented the term "shadow" to describe these personality characteristics: we unconsciously separate negative experiences from ourselves, drive them deep into the subconscious and so support our shadow. The reverse is also true: sometimes we overestimate our capabilities so much that we only see achievements. But in any case, deceive.

The brain listens to what we say to ourselves. And most importantly - believes. If we pronounce phrases like:

... the time has not come yet.
... the time has passed.
... others require my constant help.
... life will go differently when I earn my first million.
... I have no talents for this.
... they humiliate me, but they love me.
... tomorrow I will definitely start running, eating vegetables, quitting smoking ...

the brain perceives them as truth and transforms them into beliefs. Until we remove the comfortable smoke screen of self-deception, we will not begin to change. A true conversation with yourself requires a kind of audit. To do this, you can perform one simple exercise.

Exercise to activate the internal polygraph

Write your basic actions at work and at home on a piece of paper. Draw a label:

My daily affairs	I do this to achieve ...	I do this to avoid ...

Honestly marking the opposite of cases, you will understand, you do it for the sake of achievement, or simply deceive yourself with the illusion of activity in order to avoid trouble. We cannot be honest with others until we honestly talk with ourselves. It is impossible to become honest "from the New Year" or "from the first day". This is hard work on yourself. You will have to start it yourself, and not out of fear of being checked on a lie detector.

Findings:

A polygraph is not just an apparatus, but a complex interaction of two links: a machine and a polygraph examiner. And it is not clear which link is more important.
There are 2 levels of checks: household (commercial) and state.
Lie detector is not a toy. All attempts to play with the accuracy of information only reduce the credibility of the subject.
No matter how many times we are caught in a lie, we still cheat.
A lie is a public glue called upbringing.
The hardest deception is self-deception.
The reserves of self-deception are endless. But a face-to-face truth releases a mass of energy that we spend daily on self-deception.