171–180 of 183 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what culture or friends you live around, but to believe everyone has thieved is disturbing. What other ills may you believe everyone does, and so do flippantly?
> but to believe everyone has thieved is disturbing. No, it's fact. It's part of learning and growing up. You never stole anything in your life, not a piece of candy, nothing?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We know nothing about the situation. It's entirely possible that the person took $50 from their parent's purse as a child. My parents used to love to tease me about the time I stole candy from the grocery store as a child. Is that a red flag?
Since you asked: How old of a child?
Been there, done that. It's a good account, but I'm pretty surprised that the author felt that he could get away with "butt clinching", which is a form of deception, even when you're using it because you know the polygraph process is flawed. So he had to have lied to the investigator about whether or not he was being deceptive, and he never should have been cleared in the first place. My last few polygraphs (I've had…
> it was just too stressful for them. Are you sure that’s the right word? Maybe…too disrespectful? (Abusive, in your words.)
You are obligated to keep coming back until they say you're finished. More often than not, they will not tell you that you "passed" the exam.
I always had issues with their "baseline" question where they tell you to give an incorrect answer. They've told you to lie, and they know that you're lying. I have no stress at all in that situation because everybody has agreed and knows that I'm expected to lie. For some dumb reason, they are looking for some sort of physiological response from me that indicates deception. Maybe some people will react subconsciously, but I don't.
Oh boy, something on the HN front page i have direct personal experience with (CIA polygraph exams in general not this specific one). >Then she asked if I'd read about polygraphs. I said I'd just finished A Tremor in the Blood. She claimed she'd never heard of it. I was surprised. It's an important book about her field, I would have thought all polygraphers knew of it. They'll also ask you about antipolygraph.org whi…
> part of the polygraph test involves a blood pressure cuff which is put on EXTREMELY tight, far more so than any doctor or nurse would ever put it on. It is left on for the entire duration of the test (approximately 8 hours). My entire arm turned purple and i remember feeling tremors. Why would you subject yourself to this?
The CIA understands why beautiful young women with a multitude of better options will stay slavishy dedicated towards the one boyfriend who beats them, why people stay in cults with outrageous belief systems, and how fascist and communist dictatorships could motivate entire nations to commit genocide against their neighbors and fellow countrymen.
BTW the bit I described above about compelling you to tell them your embarrassing personal secrets so that they won't be used to blackmail you bears a striking resemblance to anonymously confessing your sins to a priest so that you will be forgiven in Christ's name.
More seriously, I'd be reluctant to take a polygraph-based job. If the very concept is flaky and you fail out at the beginning, no big deal. But I'm not sure I'd want to invest in a career in which something that flaky could on its own start creating career problems for you years or decades in.
I'm always surprised to hear that a government agency administers polygraph tests in something as serious as hiring but then I remember the CIA also spent millions of dollars trying to develop telekinetic assassins and train clairvoyants to spy on the Kremlin.
Hey a goat actually died you know
I'm always surprised to hear that a government agency administers polygraph tests in something as serious as hiring but then I remember the CIA also spent millions of dollars trying to develop telekinetic assassins and train clairvoyants to spy on the Kremlin.
The polygraph doesn't have to emit any useful data at all to be very useful in interrogations. Like a bomb doesn't have to have any explosive in it to clear a building. Interrogation is a head game and a complicated box with knobs and buttons and maybe even blinking lights makes a fine prop. And there's enough ambiguity in it that it's easy for the operator to believe it helps. Like a dowser with their rods, a clergy…
“Americans are stupid people, by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we’re told”.
“The bigger the lie, the more they believe”.
This rings so true and I only ever took one polygraph test. I was a nerdy 21 year old and they told me I had failed on the marijuana use question and encouraged me to think about it and come back and retry. I remember being very confused. I withdrew my application and never went back. I wonder how many others gave up on a job opportunity because it was drug abuse Wednesday or whatever.
Isn't the whole point to not lie about anything, so that later on it cannot be used to blackmail you?