Podcaster Jack Hopkins has published on Substack a thoughtful and well-researched essay on polygraph screening titled, “Kash Patel’s Deception: Stop Believing Polygraphs-Science Unmasks the Real Lies.” Excerpt:
Hypocrisy isn’t partisan. It’s universal. It’s a human being thing, not political. Wherever you find human beings…you’ll find examples of hypocrisy.
And you know what else is universal? The bullshit in the polygraph industry. So, let me break down…plain and simple…why those lie-detector machines are about as reliable as a weather forecast in a thunderstorm.
An FBI spokesperson said that, at Director Kash Patel’s instruction, the bureau has begun using polygraph exams in recent weeks to “pinpoint the source of information leaks.”
Here’s the BIG Problem: These are Often Called Lie Detector Tests…and They’re Nothing of the Sort
Worse yet, Kash Patel knows this. Even worse? Polygraphers (the people who administer the Polygraph Test)…know it better than anyone.
…
Read the rest of the article here.
Hopkins is quite right. FBI Director Kash Patel, a 2005 graduate of the Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York, should understand that polygraph “testing” is pseudoscience. His decision to ramp up the FBI’s reliance on polygraph “testing” in a quest to identify employees who speak with journalists is deeply misguided.
It bears repeating that there is no documented instance of the polygraph ever solving a federal leak investigation. But we have examples of polygraph screening causing career harm to individuals wrongly identified as leakers, as noted in this space just four days after the founding of this website in 2000.