Polygraph Article 2

Polygraph Articles Page 2

LIE DETECTOR TESTING
A C L U American Civil Liberties Union

During the past decade, more than two million private sector employees each year were asked to take a "lie detector" test. Based on these tests, approximately 300,000 workers annually were branded liars and fired, disciplined or not hired as a result.

Despite the claims of "lie detector" examiners, there is no machine that can detect lies with any degree of accuracy. The "lie detector" does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate, but those physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions such as anger, sadness, embarrassment and fear. In addition, a variety of medical conditions such as colds, headaches and neurological and muscular problems can distort the results. Indeed, as an American Medical Association expert testified during public hearings before Congress, "the [lie detector] cannot detect lies much better than a coin toss." Continue Reading This Article-->

Psychologists Surveyed On Lie Detectors Say Most Are Not Valid
Not Scientifically Sound and Can Be Easily Deceived

WASHINGTON -- The use of the polygraph (lie detector test) is not nearly as valid as some say and can easily be beaten and should never be admitted into evidence in courts of law, say psychologists from two scientific communities who were surveyed on the validity of polygraphs. This survey appears in the June issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Applied Psychology.

To obtain a scientific opinion on lie detector tests, members of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR) and Fellows of the APA's Division of General Psychology were asked how accurate three different polygraphs were in detecting deception techniques. Continue Reading This Article-->

The polygraph as a truth detector

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association believes that there is convincing evidence to suggest that the use of the polygraph is arbitrary, subjective, biased toward accusations of guilt and claims of very high validity are scientifically indefensible. However, even if one is not willing to be persuaded by evidence on these matters, one must admit, at the very least, that there is no scientific opinion whatsoever concerning the validity of polygraph testing. In fact, there is extremely wide divergence over the validity of the test.

In these circumstances, the onus is clearly on the proponents of the polygraph test to establish a convincing scientific case for the claims of high validity that are made by polygraph operators. In other words, the burden of proof rests with the lie detector industry to satisfy the scientific community and legislators that there is convincing evidence to support claims of ninety percent or greater accuracy that are commonly made by polygraph operators. Without such agreement, it seems utterly irresponsible to allow the use of such a device in situations where it may ultimately interfere with the liberty of innocent citizens. Continue Reading This Article-->

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