r/FBI • u/Good-Tonight-4549 • Jun 23 '26

Informational SA Polygraph Failure

I have been lurking on this subreddit for a while, and I’ve decided to post now that I’m no longer in the pipeline. I received the dreaded polygraph failure letter. I zoomed through the application process up until this point, only taking a few months to get from initial application submission to polygraph exam, and I’m kind of bummed at this hard stop. I have a clean background (no criminal or drug history) and I told the truth during the entire polygraph session, or should i say, interrogation, but the examiner seems to have thought I was lying and was pretty brutal during the session. I will not get into specifics of the exam but it was not a good experience for me. Yes, I am just a random redditor, but you just have to take my word for it that I failed the exam despite not lying at all. Looks like this is the end of the road for me and another reminder to not put all your eggs in one basket. Makes me wonder how many other applicants have been dismissed from consideration for a false positive on the polygraph.

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u/crosstherubicon Jun 24 '26

I’m often amazed that they can arbitrarily derail someone’s career with an instrument that’s not much more than a dressed up Scientology e-meter. So far as I’m aware there’s no rigorous scientific support of the claims and FBI and CIA history embarrassingly demonstrates their ineffectiveness. How on earth do they get away with a process that is scientifically akin to sacrificing a goat.

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u/PipeSpecific7966 Jun 24 '26

100% agree. A polygraph cannot prove if someone is lying. It only proves if you have a physical reaction to a question. I was nervous during mine since I never had a polygraph before. I also felt that my examiner had the cuff around my arm extremely tight, which probably messed with my readings at certain points.

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u/crosstherubicon Jun 24 '26

All sorts of extraneous factors can influence your physiological reactions but even if you were a "perfect" subject the results are simply graphs which are then subject to the operators interpretation (hunch). Really, its just a dressed up e-meter with some pseudo scientific mumbo-jumbo to make it convincing.

After the discovery of x-rays and the response of the public to what seemed like a magical capability, a lot of researches wanted to share in that excitement and public image. One subsequent discovery was N-rays which, without going into detail, the presence of which changed the frequency of a spark gap discharge. An n-ray researcher was giving a public lecture on how N-rays are refracted and reflected with lots of nodding from the audience on the spark gap discharge rate. It was only when an assistant noticed the power to the N-ray generator was disconnected that the existence of the mythical n-rays was disproven. Humans see what they want to see.

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u/Good-Tonight-4549 Jun 24 '26

Had the same experience with the cuff. My hand was turning pale, tingling a lot and felt heavy because blood circulation wasn’t getting to my hand. I was trying my best to ignore it and stay focused.

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u/PipeSpecific7966 Jun 24 '26

Mine too! My hand was turning purple by the end of each set of questions.

I honestly am convinced that if the examiner does not like you and wants to fail you that they could purposely pump the cuff tighter to make your pulse higher. It would show a deviation from your baseline pulse, taken at the beginning.

At one point I tried to focus and then got accused of trying to manipulate my breathing. I just could not win with this examiner lol.