Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
In “Polygraphically Perverse,” former television show host Dick Cavett continues the story he began in his previous blog entry and explains how he stumped the polygraph operator that F. Lee Bailey brought on his show.
Some two weeks after MSNBC investigative reporter Bill Dedman broke the story of the Department of Defense’s new hand-held lie detector, formally dubbed the “Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System” (PCASS), Mike A. Glasch who writes for the weekly Reader, the official newspaper of Fort Jackson, South Carolina, picked up on the story in the 24 …
Writing on his New York Times blog, former television show host Dick Cavett recounts the story of the time F. Lee Bailey appeared on his show to demonstrate how the polygraph works. Only it didn’t. Cavett tantalizingly reveals that a follow-up blog entry will be titled, “The Secret of How I Beat the Infernal Machine.”
Kat Richardson reports for The Dartmouth on Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s remarks at his recent William H. Timber ‘37 Lecture, which was co-sponsored by the Dartmouth Legal Studies faculty and the Dartmouth Lawyers Association. Excerpt: Science and the law are “uncomfortable” but inevitable “bedfellows,” Jed Rakoff, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of …
TMZ.com lampoons Dr. Phil McGraw’s use of polygraphs and tawdry topics to boost ratings, comparing his daytime television talk show with the Fox network’s game show, The Moment of Truth. In point of fact, however, the Dr. Phil show’s shameless use of lie detectors as a ratings gimmick predates The Moment of Truth and has …
Rob Shmerling of Harvard Health Publications comments on recent lie detection research using novel indices, as well on traditional polygraphy:
AntiPolygraph.org’s George Maschke addresses members of the U.S. armed forces who are being asked to rely on DoD’s new hand-held lie detector, the “Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System” (PCASS): For discussion of the PCASS, see Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System: U.S. Deploys Hand-Held Lie Detector and How to Beat the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System …
Bill Dedman of MSNBC shines much-needed light on the U.S. military’s new “Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System” or PCASS. His on-line report, “New Anti-Terror Weapon: Hand-Held Lie Detector” is a must-read and includes documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and a video segment with interviews and a demonstration conducted at the Defense Academy …
Although the U.S. National Academy of Sciences roundly rejected polygraph screening as pseudoscience in a landmark 2002 report, the U.S. Government continues to swear by it. Now the U.S. military in Iraq is soliciting bids to train Iraqi government agencies in the black art of lie detection, as Sharon Weinberger of Wired’s “Danger Blog” reports …
Washington Times reporters Bill Gertz and Jon Ward write that the State Department is resorting to the use of lie detectors in its investigation into improper access of the passport records of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. But reliance on a pseudoscientific test that is easily passed using simple countermeasures suggests …