Lloyd,

Have you considered that the gender difference you have observed may be (or at least has been contributed to by) the differing likelihood of males and females to self-report?  As one of the few people to have ever both conducted a polygraph exam (yeah.... shame on me!) and operated a mass spectrometer (forensic chemist/toxicologist), I am very happy to see new analytical thought arrive, albeit not at the expense of your recent polygraph experience.  Regards…

I don't think one can safely infer from posts to this message board that men fail the polygraph at a disproportionate rate compared with women. Many who post here do not state their sex, and those who do may deliberately mis-state it in an attempt to enhance their anonymity. And all who post here are only a small, self-selecting (and thus not necessarily representative) fraction of the total number of polygraph subjects.

No doubt, more men than women submit to polygraph "testing": they are more likely to apply for law enforcement and national security related jobs that require it, and they're more likely to be suspects in criminal cases. I'm not aware of any studies of gender bias in polygraphy, but you might be interested in this suppressed federal study of racial bias in polygraphy.

Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination?

After reading a very large number of the posts on this site, it seems that nearly all the humans who have issues with polygraph testing are likely male.  What are the reasons this is so?  Although I’m far from finished compiling information, I wish to suggest the following for commentary:
1)      Employment with law enforcement agencies in positions that require responsible action is typically a male occupation;
2)      Positions in the defense industry and military where sensitive information is handled are typically held by responsible males;
3)      For cultural, societal and hormonal reasons, physiological stress responses are more easily elicited from a male when questions contain implicit accusations of wrongdoing;
4)      In our culture, males are typically viewed (certainly by themselves) to be the main family provider.  Thus, males respond strongly when their diligent efforts to provide for their loved ones are stymied by false accusations during polygraph testing.

Please comment on these speculations and add to them if you wish.  If anyone has knowledge of databases I can use for statistical analysis with hypothesis testing, please inform me of such with citations.  I do not believe that the majority of males who “fail” the polygraph have done so because they are inherently deceptive.  An alternative hypothesis proposed is that males fail because they are goal oriented and feel strongly when their constitutional right to the lawful pursuit of happiness is impinged on by false accusations.

Unfortunately, there can be no calibration or validation of polygraph testing.  One cannot prepare a sample of statistically valid size containing known human truth and deception of varying degrees for which there are serious consequences to innocent humans who test positive for deception.  However, polygraph testing might be demonstrated to be gender discriminatory and outlawed in civilized nations on that basis.

Lloyd Ploense