No good spy would ever give anything away. If you ever find yourself captured by enemy agents, you need to keep your secrets closely guarded.
However, lying to the enemy is tricky if they have lie-detector machines. If you are captured, you may be wired to one of these and it will show your enemies when you are lying. So, if you are going ‘undercover’, you need to know how to beat the machine.
A lie detector measures the body’s reactions – heart rate, breathing and sweating. The interrogator will first ask you some simple questions, such as your name. He will then ask you a question that he knows you will probably answer with a lie. Throughout, he watches what happens to your heart rate, breathing and sweating when you tell the truth and when you are lying. The differences in these reactions will help him to spot your lies.
Your job is to confuse the lie detector. The trick is to scare yourself. Think of whatever terrifies you the most – for instance rats, spiders, or heights – during all the questions. By increasing your stress level for all answers – true or false – you will confuse the machine so it cannot give an accurate reading.