Thursday, May 10, 2012

About Lie Detector Tests

via Nanny Background Check

You’ve seen them on TV crime dramas. A potential suspect is wired to a machine via a series of sensors attached to his body while he is grilled by an expert operator with a series of probing questions. Eventually, a needle goes haywire, and the lie is revealed. Well, not so fast. There are some serious misconceptions about the lie detector test, and we’re going to discuss ten of them below:
  1. The Name Itself– The first misconception to address is the very name lie detector test. It is more correctly known as a polygraph, and can be more accurately considered to be a truth verifier test, because …
  2. They Don’t Detect Lies – Polygraphs can confirm that a person is responding truthfully to a question; however, the body functions that are monitored in a polygraph test will not specifically identify a lie, simply an abnormal physiological reaction.
And so on at the link.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. I don't smoke, but looking at the man with the cigarette, I have to wonder how smoking would affect the results, particularly if a non-smoker got a nicotine hit before being tested.

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  2. Yeah, that's an old pic. I doubt if they'd allow such a thing now.

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