Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Northwest University professor of history Ken Alder has authored a history of polygraphy. The Lie Detectors: History of an American Obsession (Free Press, 2007) will become available on 6 March 2007. An excerpt is available here. Alder will be conducting a book tour currently scheduled for the following cities and dates: New York, NY (6 …
Emily Singer reports for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review in “Imaging Deception in the Brain” (Wed., 7 Feb. 2007). Excerpt: Polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable, yet thousands of employers, attorneys, and law-enforcement officials use them routinely. Could an alternative system using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technology that indirectly measures brain activity, …
In this 1986 exposé of the polygraph trade, CBS 60 Minutes set up a test in which three polygraph examiners chosen at random from the New York telephone directory were asked to administer polygraph examinations to four different employees of the CBS-owned magazine, Popular Photography, regarding the theft of a camera and lens. In fact, …
Oregon is one of five U.S. states that have wisely enacted a total ban on polygraphy in the workplace. But some Oregon chiefs of police are seeking an exemption for law enforcement agencies, as Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian reports in “Police Push to Polygraph Hires”: Anyone interested in wearing a police badge in Oregon …
Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper reports in “GOP Urges Berger Lie Test” (24 January 2007). Excerpt: Eighteen House Republicans have urged the Justice Department to proceed with a polygraph test for Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser who agreed to take the test as part of a plea of guilty of stealing documents …
On 12 December 2001, CBS 60 Minutes II aired an investigative report on polygraph screening. Produced by Shawn Efran and reported by Scott Pelley, the report takes an in-depth look at the U.S. Government’s misplaced reliance on polygraph screening. The concerns raised in this report remain as valid today as they were five years ago. …
Fox News Channel reports that Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is leading a group of 18 Republican members of Congress in asking the Justice Department to exercise its right under a plea agreement to polygraph former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger regarding his theft of classified documents from the National Archive: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department …
In 2003, AntiPolygraph.org’s George Maschke was interviewed by Nick Frost for the tongue-in-cheek 2003 British television series, Danger: Incoming Attack. This segment, which aired as part of episode 5, may now be viewed here:
In its January 2007 issue, the Association for Psychological Science periodical Observer has published a tribute to David Lykken, the late eminent psychologist and polygraph critic.
The FBI obfuscates and evades in a written response to questions posed by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) regarding the Bureau’s polygraph screening program. Senator Grassley’s questions, and the FBI’s responses, appear at pp. 47-50 of a document submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 30 November 2006 and made available by the Federation of American …