Detecting lies
"Today Tonight" Lie Detector Test
Segments of the real estate industry will criticise Neil Jenman following his participation in a Today Tonight program on Channel 7 on Monday (7 April 2003).
The segment, billed as revealing the truth about real estate agents, was supposed to subject agents to lie detector tests while answering a series of key questions (e.g. Have you ever used dummy bidders at auction? Have you ever lied to a consumer? and Have you ever sold a house with a problem?)
However, the program failed to reveal much about agents because agents were unwilling to take part. As the reporter pointed out, all agents approached by Channel 7 refused to participate after seeing the list of questions they would be asked.
Only two people were willing to take the lie detector test - the Sydney rental agent Len Pretti and consumer advocate Neil Jenman.
The testing indicated Pretti had been correct with 7 of the 12 questions asked, while Jenman was correct with 10 out of 12. With the same examiner who tested Henry Kaye , Paul Woolley Polygraph Expert.
Neil Jenman says: "The real estate industry may criticise me for apparently getting two of the twelve questions wrong. But this is the same industry that refused to be tested under those same conditions, after seeing the questions they would be asked.
Sunday Herald Sun
Edition 1 - FIRSTSUN 24 AUG 2003, Page 011
Doubts put to test
By Lou Robson
LINGERING doubt. Paul Woolley's business is based on lingering doubt.
Husbands who don't trust their wives.
Wives who don't trust their husbands. Unfaithful boyfriends. Deceptive girlfriends.
These days partners who suspect one another of foul play are paying big bucks for lie detector tests.
Forensic psychophysiologist Paul Woolley, who runs Australian Lie Detection Laboratories, says every day couples come to his office and pay $990 for a polygraph test.
Paul says 90 per cent of his work is domestic.
There are wives who believe their husbands are cheating. Husbands who think their wives are planning to leave.
Men plagued by the thought that their partner deliberately stopped taking the pill in order to fall pregnant. Lovers unconvinced of their lover's affection.
Paul says his customers come from all walks of life. They aren't just wealthy couples with time and money on their hands. They are middle and lower class people who save up for the tests because they can no longer live with doubt.
You name it, I've seen it, says Paul, who has conducted thousands of tests since starting the business in 1997.
It's unbelieveable but I guess these things must really matter to people because they come in and have the test just to sort it out."
Paul says one of his most memorable cases involved a married couple who came to him after a big night out.
He says the woman, aged in her thirties, drank too much and passed out.
She woke up with bruised genitals and became convinced her husband had done something to her in her sleep.
The woman had bruising and other wounds to her genital area and believed her husband had done something as she slept," Paul says.
Obviously their relationship suffered as a result and in the end they came to me."
Paul says the man was wired to the machine, asked questions and the results were analysed.
It turned out the husband wasn't lying. His story was right all along, Paul says.
He said he was upstairs when he heard a loud noise and ran to where the sound came from. He said he found his wife had fallen on a ceramic statue which injured her in a fairly sensitive region.
That was pretty unusual.
Other cases involve cheating or suspected cheating.
One woman brought her husband in and I sat down and tested him and it turned out he wasn't just cheating with one woman,Paul says.
He had four on the go. He knew he was in trouble.
Paul says during the examinations only he and the client are in the room. He says he tapes receptors to the clients chest, fingers and wrists to detect changes in the heart rate, skin reflexes and other responses which indicate a person is feel- ing threatened.
He says many clients start explaining how nervous they are and how this might effect the machine.
He says they start protesting their innocence and stating they won't believe the results.
I can tell pretty much straight away whether someone is guilty, he says.
But there are times when you come up against people who think they know how to manipulate the machine and it can be hard to tell.
But computer analysis of the results always gives us a conclusive answer.
Paul says the fireworks start when a client leaves the room and the results are handed over to the waiting partner.
He says most of the time people try to contain themselves but sometimes they erupt there and then.
I've seen a woman slap and scratch her husband while I stood just a couple of feet away, he says.
I've seen people announce that they wanted a divorce and I've seen couples fall into one another's arms.
But it takes all sorts.
Courier Mail
Edition 1 - First with the newsFRI 05 SEP 2003, Page 003
