Effects of coping and cooperative instructions on guilty and informed innocents' physiological responses to concealed information

Previous research on the Concealed Information Test indicates that knowledge of the critical information of a given event is sufficient for the elicitation of strong physiological reactions, thus facilitating detection by the test. Other factors that affect the test's efficacy are deceptive verbal responses to the test's questions and motivation of guilty examinees to avoid detection. In the present study effects of coping and cooperative instructions - delivered to guilty and innocent participants - on detection were examined. In a mock-theft experiment guilty participants who actually committed a mock-crime, and informed innocent participants who handled the critical items of the crime in an innocent context, were instructed to adopt either a coping or a cooperative attitude toward the polygraph test. Results indicated that both, guilt and coping behavior, were associated with enhanced physiological responses to the critical information, whereas innocence and cooperative behavior attenuated physiological responses. Theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.