Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Following up on his previous article on the San Francisco Police Department’s reliance on polygraph screening–despite broad scientific consensus that it is invalid–S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith takes an in-depth look at the man the SFPD has hired to polygraph applicants: Patrick T. Coffey, who received “$81,463 during the last fiscal year” for his services. …
In a well-researched article, S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith critically examines the SFPD’s reliance on polygraphy for applicant screening, despite it being completely discredited among scientists. Those interviewed include retired FBI scientist Dr. Drew Richardson, Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed a National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the scientific evidence on polygraphy, and polygraph …
Emory University professor of psychology Scott Lilienfeld, who pens Psychology Today’s The Skeptical Psychologist blog, lambastes polygraphy (and the U.S. government’s continued reliance on this pseudoscience) in an article titled, “The Polygraph Strikes–and Strikes Out–Again.”
Fox 26 News KRVI in Houston, Texas reports that all employees at the Houston Fire Department’s Station 54 will be asked to submit to lie detector “testing” in a racial and sexual harassment investigation: HOUSTON – FOX 26 has learned that every employee at Houston Fire Department Fire Station 54 will be asked to take …
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has proposed polygraph screening for members of Congress who receive CIA briefings. Susan Crabtree reports for The Hill: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants fellow lawmakers who receive classified CIA briefings to submit to polygraph tests. “We should have a very high standard for those who are briefed by CIA — to …
In a commentary addressing the case of retired CIA polygrapher John F. Sullivan, who is suing the CIA after failing a polygraph test for post-retirement contract employment, Congressional Quarterly National Security editor Jeff Stein, himself a veteran Army Intelligence case officer, proposes that CIA polygraphers — who “claim to be able to read the inner …
On Friday, 20 March 2009, AntiPolygraph.org received a communication from a lawyer for NCS Pearson, Inc. demanding the removal of a post from our message board that purports to list the first 75 questions of the 567-question Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Test 2 (MMPI-2). (A seemingly knowledgable poster on the message board maintains that the questions …
In an oral history posted on YouTube, musician Tom Henry recounts the story of how, as a young Navy seaman, he was caught with a pound of marijuana in his locker, but escaped punishment after fooling the lie detector: The technique Tom thought of for fooling the lie detector (dissociation) wasn’t very sophisticated. But it …
Israeli lie detector company Nemesysco has issued a press release responding to Professors Anders Eriksson and Francisco Lacerda’s article, “Charlatanry in Speech Science: A Problem to Be Taken Seriously,” which laid bare in devastating detail the pseudoscientific nature of Nemesysco’s lie detection “technology.” It should be noted that Nemesysco’s press release opens with a misleading …
Alexis Madrigal writes for Wired.com about what is reportedly the first attempt to have fMRI lie detector results admitted in court: Defense attorneys are for the first time submitting a controversial next-generation lie-detection test as evidence in criminal court. In an upcoming juvenile-sex-abuse case in San Diego, the defense is hoping to get an fMRI …