Passing A Polygraph Test

I'd flunk, if only out of Catholic guilt for things I haven't even done. Others also struggle:

No, I said, and began to feel the impossibility of telling truth to a polygraph machine-of ever being verified by the machine as a good guy. The thrill was gone, and I began to feel suffocated by the convoluted tubes, assaulted by endless questions that seemed always like accusations. The scientific review committee mentions something called the "'guilty complex'-an individual attribute that may lead innocent people to respond physiologically as do guilty people." Anyway, I began to squirm and fidget. Probably I began looking guilty.

At the same time, I noticed that Smith's attitude toward me had changed, that he wasn't as friendly as while I was confessing. The review committee notes that "an examiner's belief, or expectancy, about examinees' guilt or innocence ... may cause the examiner to behave differentially-for instance, in a more hostile manner-toward examinees believed to be guilty or deceptive. Such behavior would plausibly create differential emotional reactions in examinees that could affect physiological responses that are detected by the polygraph."