Lie detectors are not infallible, but people who believe they are infallible may be more likely than non-believers to confess to their crimes. In one small town police station which had no polygraph, a kitchen colander was placed on a burglary suspect’s head and attached by wires to a copy machine on which there was a sheet of paper that read “He’s lying!” When he denied committing the burglary, an officer pressed the “copy button,” and when the “He’s lying!” paper emerged, the suspect confessed.

[Source: Shepherd, C., Kohut, J. J., & Sweet, R. (1989). News of the weird. New York: New American Library.]