How to Beat a Polygraph: Countermeasures and Myths

In today’s society, there’s a widespread myth about the super-effectiveness of polygraphs. Mistakes are often blamed on the lack of skill of individual specialists, but the reliability of the technology itself is rarely questioned. Many publications cite “authoritative data” claiming that lie detector tests are 99% or even 100% accurate. This myth is actively promoted by polygraph examiners and other interested parties. First, it serves as advertising to create commercial demand for these expensive services, which bring specialized firms significant income. Second, it’s used to apply psychological pressure on those being tested, discouraging resistance and increasing the effectiveness of the tests. In other words, it helps ensure victory before the battle even begins.

There are also deeper social and psychological reasons. Since ancient times, it’s been known that fear and awe of something mysterious and powerful are the foundation of control over the masses. The myth of the polygraph’s power is no exception. The ruling class uses it to keep those below them in fear and obedience—whether you call them the people, subordinates, or “office plankton.” It’s no coincidence that in many dystopian novels, polygraphs and polygraph examiners are part of a totalitarian system, a tool of social control and oppression by the elite.

Another manipulative myth is that only criminals fear polygraph tests, because “an honest person has nothing to hide.” Refusing the test or trying to resist is seen as proof of your unreliability. This is meant to make you feel fear and guilt for not wanting to undergo the test and bare your soul. But disliking the polygraph or refusing the test doesn’t mean you’re a villain. In most countries, polygraph results are not direct evidence of guilt or innocence.

Everyone has a personal inner world they want to protect from intrusion. We all have motives, interests, and secrets we don’t want or have to share. In the Anglo-American legal system, there’s even a special category—privacy—meaning the right to secrecy and the inviolability of private life. Polygraph testing is a direct invasion of your intimate territory.

Sometimes, such intrusion is justified—for example, in investigating serious crimes that threaten society and lives. If you’ve been falsely accused, a polygraph test may be your only chance to prove your innocence. But often, being forced to take a polygraph is an insult, a gross invasion of privacy, and psychological violence. Examples include mass loyalty checks at the whim of a boss, suspicions of infidelity, and other situations now common in the price lists of commercial polygraph firms.

Polygraph examiners, at the client’s request or out of unhealthy curiosity, often violate ethical norms and professional standards. They may try to learn everything about you—from political and religious beliefs to sexual preferences. This is especially common during hiring or employee screening. If you can’t refuse such a test (for example, due to the threat of immediate firing) but don’t want to reveal your private life, trying to beat the polygraph may be your only option.

Can You Really Beat a Polygraph?

Before testing, every polygraph examiner tries to convince the “victim” that resisting the polygraph is pointless. During the briefing, you’ll be told in a friendly manner that the lie detector “sees everything” and can’t be fooled. You’re supposed to relax and “enjoy” the process of being turned inside out. Don’t blame the specialists for this—it’s part of their job. But is it really possible to beat a lie detector?

Who Can Beat a Polygraph?

Despite advances in science and technology, the real effectiveness of polygraphs is far from the advertised numbers. There are many errors and scandals where polygraph results have ruined innocent lives. Even in the U.S., where polygraph use is widespread and examiners are highly trained, independent experts estimate accuracy at best around 70%. Laboratory and field studies show a significant number of errors. Experiments have also proven that it’s possible to learn how to successfully counteract a polygraph. It’s difficult, but possible.

Social psychopaths can easily beat a lie detector. They lack a normal sense of social norms, ethics, and morality (what we call a conscience), so questions about breaking these norms don’t trigger anxiety. There are cases where sexual predators and serial killers passed polygraph tests because they felt no anxiety about their crimes.

There are also restrictions on testing minors and the very elderly, as they may not understand the meaning or significance of the questions. Pathological liars can also pass, since if a person truly believes their own lies, the polygraph reads them as truth. That’s why polygraph manuals say it’s impossible to test people with acute psychosis or schizophrenia—they can’t distinguish illusion from reality.

Highly skilled actors and trained intelligence agents can also beat the polygraph. Regular “training” with the device allows them to make their reactions automatic, so they can fool the machine. For ordinary people, it takes significant effort and sometimes just luck. Unlike spies, you probably won’t have access to a polygraph for practice, and your prep time will be limited. But you still have a chance.

The first step is to overcome the fear and awe of the polygraph that’s been instilled in you. Get rid of any guilt—they block your will to resist. Calm self-confidence and a winning mindset help. Remember, the lie detector isn’t all-powerful. It can’t read your thoughts. It only records your physiological state during the test—specifically, changes in your body’s responses to questions. The computer gives a probability estimate, which a specialist then interprets. Like any machine, the polygraph can be tricked or confused so it can’t give a clear answer.

How the Lie Detector Works

The basic principle: the more important a question is to you, the stronger your physiological reaction. If you’re not involved in what the interrogators are interested in, you’ll react about the same to all questions. But if you are involved, significant questions will cause uncontrollable tension.

Before the main test, all questions are usually discussed with you. The topic is agreed upon in advance to avoid unpredictable reactions to surprise questions. If you’re suddenly asked, “Did you sleep with your boss’s wife?” you might get nervous or hesitate, even if you never did. Or you might be surprised—polygraphs show similar reactions to both lying and surprise.

During the pre-test discussion, you can decide how to answer. Knowing the topic and likely questions, you can create a “legend”—a vivid, emotionally charged image that replaces reality. With strong imagination and self-suggestion, this can help you fool the polygraph. The key is to make yourself believe in this alternative reality, not just imagine it. The hardest part is to “not think of a white rhino”—to forget the real events for a while. Otherwise, the real and imagined images will overlap, causing mental tension and stress. You’ll show delayed reactions and other artifacts, indicating you’re constructing a false event (i.e., lying), which the polygraph will record as evidence of deception.

Before the main test, a pre-test interview is conducted to “calibrate” your responses. Your normal physiological indicators are recorded: breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, tremor, and skin conductance. Then, tests determine how your indicators “jump” when you’re asked significant questions. These are usually simple: “Is your name John?”, “Do you have a family?”, “Do you intend to deceive the polygraph?”

Your reaction to deliberate lies is also studied. The examiner says several names, including yours, and you must lie by denying your own name. This checks how you react to lying and how the detector records it. Similar tasks may involve picking a number, a card, or an object, and the examiner “guesses” it by analyzing your reactions.

Interestingly, polygraph operator manuals often recommend using tricks—marked cards, hidden cameras—to ensure the demonstration is foolproof. The goal is to break your will to resist and convince you it’s useless to try to beat the polygraph.

The main test can last several hours. Questions are read, and you’re asked to answer “yes” or “no.” After each question, there’s a pause (15–20 seconds) while your physiological reaction is recorded. The polygraph notes when your heart skips, when your breathing changes, when you sigh with relief, or when your hands or knees tremble. Signs of emotional tension in response to significant questions include:

• Increased skin conductance response
• Pulse slows, then compensates with increased heart rate
• Breathing slows or pauses, then compensates with deeper, faster breaths
• Changes in inhale/exhale timing and pauses
• Increased muscle tremor

To disorient you and break your defenses, conditions and wording may change. The same question may be asked repeatedly or in different forms. You may be asked to answer “yes” to all questions, or only “no,” or to answer silently in your mind. “Filler” questions on neutral topics are used to make it harder to lie and make physiological signs of lying more obvious. There are also “trap” questions about details only the guilty would know, and “control” questions meant to provoke anxiety even in the innocent (“Have you ever taken something that wasn’t yours?”). Lying on a control question is seen as a sign of deception.

Methods to Beat the Polygraph

How can you “break” the polygraph’s calibration and make it work incorrectly? The first idea is to give random, false, or nonsensical answers to all questions, confusing the polygraph so it can’t tell when you’re telling the truth. But this obvious resistance will almost certainly make you look guilty. This approach is usually chosen by those with nothing to lose—ideological opponents of polygraphs or caught criminals who refuse to cooperate. But then it’s hard to get details (“Who were your accomplices? Where are the stolen diamonds?”) because there’s no baseline for comparison.

Most people want to avoid suspicion. So how can you beat the lie detector without being noticed? There are three main methods, all requiring practice and preparation. Any attempt to beat the polygraph without training will likely fail.

1. Lowering Sensitivity

One way is to reduce your own sensory sensitivity. Drinking alcohol the day before can dull your reactions, making you less responsive to stimuli. The polygraph won’t be able to draw clear conclusions.

Certain medications can also help, such as beta-blockers that lower blood pressure and block adrenaline. But you must know how your body reacts to these drugs, and time their effects so they peak during the test. If you’re caught lying about taking substances, the polygraph may detect it. People with chronic illnesses who regularly take medication may find it easier to mask reactions.

However, in serious cases (like court evidence), blood tests for drugs are mandatory, making this method useless.

Another chemical method is treating your skin with substances that make its electrical conductance constant, so the sensors can’t detect changes. Rubbing your hands with medical alcohol, using talc, anti-sweat creams, or foot deodorants can help. The product must be invisible, long-lasting, and survive hand washing. Salicylic-zinc ointment, applied to warmed hands, is effective. But remember, the polygraph also records breathing, which you’ll need to control yourself.

Non-chemical methods include sleep deprivation, extreme fatigue, or fasting, which dull physiological reactions and make the polygraph charts “flat” and hard to interpret. But don’t overdo it—if your skin resistance is too high, or your reactions to control questions are flat, the examiner may stop or reschedule the test.

2. Suppressing Emotions

This method involves suppressing all emotions so no stimulus triggers a significant response. There are two approaches: general deconcentration and focused attention. Try to answer all questions automatically, focusing on a neutral object, a body part, your breathing, or a memory. Ideally, forget the polygraph exists and ignore the content of the questions. This requires self-regulation skills and lots of practice, but can be effective.

Be careful not to appear detached—monotone voice, stone face, fixed gaze, or answering before the question is finished can alert the examiner. If noticed, the examiner may change the question format to break your trance.

3. Creating False Reactions

This approach is about producing the “right” reaction, not just suppressing all reactions. Fake emotional responses to irrelevant questions can help. For example, mentally multiply large numbers or recall something that makes you angry or aroused when asked a control question. If you want to hide your sexual orientation, do this when asked about women; if you want to appear gay, do it when asked about men. You can also silently recite poetry or tense certain muscles (press toes to the floor, cross your eyes, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth) to create physiological reactions.

Pain also triggers stress responses. Some people put a tack in their shoe and press it with their toe during certain answers. The body reacts to pain, not truth or lies, making the polygraph readings ambiguous. But these movements are hard to hide—cameras may record your face and body, and suspicious behavior will be interpreted against you. If you always use the same trick, the examiner may notice a pattern. Sensors may even be attached to your legs or chin to detect movement.

The tongue is the hardest muscle to monitor. After answering, you can press it to your teeth or palate to cause pain. But even this can be detected with special sensors. Also, you must not disrupt your breathing, as the polygraph will record any changes.

All mechanical methods are hard to hide and take time, causing delayed reactions that the examiner can spot. With practice, you can minimize this delay. Alternatively, use psychological “anchors” (from NLP) to trigger tension or relaxation at will—these are harder to detect. Even an inconclusive result can sometimes work in your favor.

For example, in Harry Harrison’s “The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge,” the hero uses relaxation and tension to fool a lie detector during a surprise interrogation. He relaxes when asked incriminating questions, so the device shows no reaction, and the interrogation ends.

But be careful: examiners know that everyone feels some anxiety during testing. If you relax too much, your reaction may be lower than to neutral questions, which will attract attention. Overdoing relaxation can make you look suspicious.

Conclusion

Beating a polygraph requires skill, practice, and training. It’s only possible under certain circumstances, and even then, success isn’t guaranteed. Remember, the polygraph is not infallible, and its results are not absolute proof of guilt or innocence. If you must take a polygraph, understanding how it works and how to counteract it can help you protect your privacy and peace of mind.