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        "description": "<p>Is it possible to beat a lie detector test?  Jonny Phillips tries out various methods to outwit a lie detector and keep his \"crime\" hidden.</p>", 
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        "title": "I Didn't Know That: Beating a Lie Detector Test", 
        "url": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/science/weird-science-sci/idkt-lie-detector-test/", 
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                    "url": "http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/", 
                    "name": "More About Science"
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        "credit": "National Geographic", 
        "smil": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/data/xml/idkt-lie-detector-test.smil", 
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        "transcript": "<p>EXAMINER: Hello Jonny.</p><p>JONNY PHILLIPS (SYNC): Hi there.</p><p>EXAMINER: Er - would you like to take a seat?</p><p>JONNY PHILLIPS (SYNC): Sure.</p><p>JONNY PHILLIPS (V/O): The lie detector, or polygraph.\u00a0 We've all seen the movies.\u00a0 Some steely eyed spy trying to conceal the truth from a mysterious interrogator.\u00a0 But can you beat a lie detector in real life?</p><p>Lying is a stressful business.\u00a0 The natural physiological reactions to telling a bit fat whopper is that your pulse quickens, you breathe faster and you start to sweat.\u00a0 Polygraphs work by detecting these changes.\u00a0 So any spike on the chart can indicate stress and therefore the possibility of a lie.\u00a0 So the key to deceiving a lie detector is to try and hide your real stress levels.</p><p>24 hours earlier I nicked Richard's games console. The question was, could I hide my act of dishonesty from the machine?</p><p>I was hooked up to it so that my breathing, skin conductivity and blood pressure could be measured.</p><p>Polygraph tests start with the examiner asking a series of basic questions to which the answers are known to be true.\u00a0 This establishes a baseline which indicates the average stress levels of that individual.</p><p>JONNY (PTC): Now one rumoured technique used by old spies was to put a drawing pin in their shoe.\u00a0 Now I'm gonna press my toes down onto this pin during the baseline questions.\u00a0 Hopefully the pain will increase my stress levels, so that during the potentially incriminating questions my nervous stress won't register any higher on the charts.</p><p>EXAMINER (SYNC - TO JONNY): OK.\u00a0 I'm gonna ask you a series of questions.\u00a0 I just need you to answer yes or no to each question.</p><p>Are you known as Jonny?</p><p>JONNY (SYNC - TO EXAMINER): Yes.</p><p>EXAMINER: Is today Tuesday?</p><p>JONNY: Yes</p><p>EXAMINER: Just keep perfectly still for me.</p><p>JONNY (V/O): Which is quite difficult when your big toe's jammed down on a drawing pin.</p><p>EXAMINER: Are you wearing a grey jacket?</p><p>JONNY: Yes.</p><p>JONNY (V/O): With the baseline questions over, it was time for the main interrogation to begin.</p><p>JONNY (V/O): I was also hoping another trick might fool the machine.\u00a0 Stress makes you sweat more which increases your skin conductivity, putting tell tale spikes on the graph.\u00a0 So earlier I'd sprayed my fingers with anti perspirant to reduce the flow.</p><p>EXAMINER (SYNC): The test has started.\u00a0 Regarding the missing games console, do you intend to answer truthfully each question about that?</p><p>JONNY (SYNC):</p><p>Yes.</p><p>EXAMINER:</p><p>Prior to age 25 did you ever steal anything from a shop?</p><p>JONNY:</p><p>Yes.</p><p>JONNY (V/O):</p><p>Famously, in the late 80s, CIA agent Aldridge Ames beat two polygraph tests while he was spying for the Russians by apparently just being super relaxed.\u00a0 Have my techniques worked with similar results?</p><p>EXAMINER: Prior to 2005 have you ever taken anything from a friend knowing you would not return it?</p><p>JONNY: No.</p><p>EXAMINER: Do you know where the missing games console is right now?</p><p>JONNY: No.</p><p>EXAMINER: Did you take the missing games console that Richard was using?</p><p>JONNY: No.</p><p>EXAMINER: Well Jonny, we've come to the end of your test and I'm afraid to tell you that you actually failed the test.\u00a0 There was one particular question, which was did you take the missing games console from the bench in the lab?\u00a0 And it shows a significant change in your breathing, in you galvanic sweat resistance and your blood pressure.\u00a0 Um you failed one question, so you failed the entire test.</p><p>JONNY (V/O): I'd made a fatal error.\u00a0 Apparently the pain induced stress caused by the drawing pin produced a totally different spike to that caused by nervous stress.\u00a0 And tests have shown that most anti perspirants actually increase skin conductivity.</p><p>I may not have beaten the lie detector, but a failed test isn't enough for a conviction in a UK court of law.\u00a0 Although it might help persuade a jury.</p>", 
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