The Physiological Mechanism Of Deception Detection In A Mock Customs Scene

The application of deception detection technology has been highly concerned by researchers for a long time.Of all kind of deception detection technology with instrument,the longest tradition one is widely known as "polygraph".When the liars try to conceal information,often accompanied by complex physiological reaction,their autonomic nervous system(ANS)will be activated with varying degrees,causing changes of some physiological indexes,such as electrocardiogram(ECG),galvanic skin response(GSR),etc.The principle of polygraph is inferring whether a participant tells lie by detecting the changes of these physiological autonomic response.Since cases of illegal items(such as drug,arms and ammunition,etc.)smuggling emerged in an endless stream,more and more researches of deception detection have been applied to the national security.However,there is no application of deception detection using polygraph to prevent smuggling in customs.Therefore,in the current study,setting up a mock customs scene where individuals carried a suitcase through customs and recording the ECG and GSR,we detected deception by comparing the physiological response with and without illegal items when asking questions about their personal information and items in the suitcase,and tested its validity and effectiveness.We further explored the changes of physiological response of specific items and identified them from the illegal items.The current study and offered The biggest innovation of the current study is(1)to provide scientific basis of physiological polygraph in customs and(2)to offer a possible technology to identity different types of illegal items.In Study 1,we validated the effectiveness of physiological polygraph in a mock customs scene,by comparing the changes of physiological response of subjects between guilty(with drug)and innocent group when asking them personal and items information,and investigated the accuracies of physiological polygraph among RR interval,Heart rate and GSR.Based on Study 1,we added another guilty group(with bomb)and then designed Study 2.In Study 2,we distinguished guilty from innocent group by comparing the changes of physiological response among three groups,investigated the accuracies of physiological polygraph among three physiological indexes and identified two types of guilty group respectively.The current study concluded that:1.Participants in guilty group had stronger physiological response to the illegal items information that matched their guilt(with bomb or drug)than to other information,while in innocent group had stronger physiological response to the personal information than to the travel items information.2.Participants had stronger physiological response to the illegal items information that matched their guilt(with bomb or drug)in guilty group than that in innocent group.However,there was no significant difference of physiological response to the personal and travel items information between guilty and innocent group.3.Participants in guilty group had stronger physiological response to the illegal items information that mismatched their guilt(with bomb or drug)and matched more serious crime than to the travel items information.4.The criminals and innocents could be effectively identified through GSR of answering illegal items question,heart rate(or RR interval)of answering illegal items question and personal information question;the types of criminals could be furtherly distinguished from the criminals who were identified.5.The accuracies of identifying criminals and innocents decreased when there were more than one types of criminals.