Model and author Tara Moss reveals she was forced to take a polygraph test to ... trends now
Tara Moss has recalled how she was forced to take a lie detection test to prove she was the writer of her successful novels.
The Canadian-Australian author and model, 50, appeared on the Life Uncut podcast and explained that when her first book was published, people refused to believe she wrote it given her career in modelling - stereotyping her, and other models, as less intelligent.
'I ended up being dared to take a polygraph test to prove that I write my own books,' she told hosts Laura Byrne and Brittany Hockley.
'So when my first book came out in 1999, there was like a little rumour campaign that came out like, "She couldn't have possibly written her own book because she's this model".
'I was in my 20s, I was blonde, I was a model. There were lots of stereotypes around all of those groups. Put them together, not a novelist, right?'
Tara Moss (pictured) recalled how she was forced to take a lie detection test to prove she was the writer of her novels. The author and model, 50, explained that when her first book was published, people refused to believe she wrote it given her career in modelling
Tara recalled sitting the test, and 'ended up with a 33 page report' that proved she was a writer.
Her debut novel, Fetish, was first published in 1999 and went on to become a best seller.
The model found the test and people's disbelief 'bizarre'.
'I'd been wanting to write my whole life. I'd finally done it. It was hard... I was proud of myself,' she continued.
'[It] should have been a really beautiful moment of celebration, and instead, I felt like I was being hunted and attacked and disbelieved, to an extent.'
Ultimately, Tara admitted the polygraph test was a blessing in disguise that proved her doubters wrong.
'I ended up being dared to take a polygraph test to prove that I write my own books,' she explained on the Life Uncut podcast
'That polygraph test was a gift, and it helped to break the cycle. We need to actually look at the stereotypes at work here and question our assumptions,' she said.
Polygraph tests measure fear-based arousal someone will show while answering crucial questions.
These physiological markers include things like sweating.
The idea that these markers will change while lying is based on the premise that anxiety around deception increases due to the liar's fear of being caught.
