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View Full Version : Lie Detector not reliable

sbp
10-19-02, 08:50 PM
http://www.sltrib.com/10102002/nation_w/5766.htm

a snippage: The National Academy of Sciences declared this week that polygraph examinations are dangerously unreliable and the federal government should cease depending on them to screen for security risks.

The academy's 18-month, federally-funded study found that the so-called lie detector not only incorrectly deems large numbers of people who are telling the truth to be liars, but may have allowed spies and others posing security risks into sensitive positions because they were able to pass polygraph tests.

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I'd be lying if this was a surprise.

So-called lie detectors are notoriously inacccurate, yet this myth about them being so great persists.
DaveW
10-19-02, 08:55 PM
They aren't used in the UK and most other countries for exactly this reason. They don't work any more than crystals heal cancer. The whole thing is based on pseudo-science.
DaveW
10-20-02, 10:52 AM
That method of profiling a suspect based on their hand writting (forget what its called) doesn't work either :)
LORD-eX-Bu
10-20-02, 03:37 PM
I think human lie detectors are better, remember "Meet the Parents"?:p :D ;)
StealthHawk
10-20-02, 06:16 PM
Originally posted by sbp
So-called lie detectors are notoriously inacccurate, yet this myth about them being so great persists.

probably because it works on the vast majority of people
The Baron
10-20-02, 06:46 PM
Lie detectors don't work--the whole point is to make you act really paranoid and all that if you do have something to hide.

Somebody needs to make a REAL lie detector... that'd be interesting.
ALobpreis
10-20-02, 07:48 PM
Someone should make a hack to access the person's brain, check his database and verify if he lies or not. Maybe it's possible with Linux.... :D
Feanor
10-21-02, 04:30 AM
As to these polygraphs and the myths surrounding them, stubing one's toe or biting the lip whenever giving a truthful responce, I wonder if that might give them some "interesting" results LOL Anyway, I wouldn't take polygraph results at face value...

Originally posted by ALobpreis
Someone should make a hack to access the person's brain, check his database and verify if he lies or not. Maybe it's possible with Linux.... :D

Oh Gawd, no!!! Think of the privacy invasions if that ever could be done. Psy Cops and President Clark's use of it ring a bell for anyone who has watched Babylon 5? There was enough a year ago with some people proposing "brain fingerprinting" as a means to combat terrorism...