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

► We examined the states of mind of examinees in a polygraph test. ► Coping and cooperative instructions were delivered to guilty and innocent examinees. ► Coping guilty examinees were most responsive to the concealed information. ► Informed cooperative innocents were least responsive. ► Cooperative instructions should be incorporated in the Concealed Information Test.