The Success of Information Concealment During Polygraph Testing by Individuals of Different Mentality Types

Abstract

The goal of this study was to identify the information concealment features during polygraph testing by persons with analytical and holistic types of mentality. Participants of the study (N = 23) were individuals who underwent personnel polygraph testing, which ensured environmental validity. The experiment was di- vided into three parts: a pre-test conversation to find out information about the events being checked; tests filling; polygraph testing (concealed information test in the option of the name and number hiding). The analysis revealed that if the subject is closer to the holistic pole of the analytical-holistic scale, there are less pronounced differences in the physiological parameters changings when answering relevant and irrelevant questions about numbers (p<0.05). There was no such correlation in the test about the names. It was also shown that if the individual is closer to the analytical pole, there is the greater the subjective experience of a polygraph testing as stressful (p<0.05). The data obtained allow us to raise the issue for further research aimed at clarifying the systematic organization of information concealment behavior by individuals of different mentality types.