Saw an ad for Integra Polygraph this morning. As I understand it, polygraph tests can be manipulated if you know what you are doing. Also the result depends on the skill of the person interpreting the results. But of course everyone will claim to know what their doing…
Anyone know a bit more?
Polygraph tests (aka lie detector tests) are not permitted as evidence in most countries’ courts because of looming question marks over their accuracy and reliability. There’s some good info on how it’s supposed to work as well as on the criticisms thereof here and here (see especially the Validity and Countermeasures parts).
'Luthon64
Can’t help but wonder about the outcome if a member of Acme Polygraph’s marketing department is hooked up to one of their own instruments, and subsequently questioned about the machine. Maybe a skilled interrogator can so create one of those paradoxes that will cause the universe to partially suck itself into another dimension, leading to wormhole travel and several other interesting tidbits. 8)
Rigil
When I was fresh out of varsity, and working one of my first jobs, I was falsely accused of theft.
I insisted on a polygraph, which I failed and was fired. The rest is my own little bit of miserable history, it was a setback in life which nearly destroyed me, and I have never recovered from the psychological scars it left me with. Even now, many years later, I will still shed a tear in quiet moments about all that was stolen from me. Not necessarily becuase of the polygraph (people did this to me, not a machine), but ultimately I am a poster child for how polygraph tests and the bogus science they employ, destroy lives.