Normal Topic Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination? (Read 2730 times)
Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box InnocentWithPTSD
Ex Member


Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination?
Aug 3rd, 2007 at 12:43pm
Mark & QuoteQuote Print Post  
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
Exclaim
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box George W. Maschke
Global Moderator
*****
Offline


Make-believe science yields
make-believe security.

Posts: 6220
Joined: Sep 29th, 2000
Re: Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination?
Reply #1 - Aug 3rd, 2007 at 2:26pm
Mark & QuoteQuote Print Post  
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.
  

George W. Maschke
I am generally available in the chat room from 3 AM to 3 PM Eastern time.
Tel/SMS: 1-202-810-2105 (Please use Signal Private Messenger or WhatsApp to text or call.)
E-mail/iMessage/FaceTime: antipolygraph.org@protonmail.com
Wire: @ap_org
Threema: A4PYDD5S
Personal Statement: "Too Hot of a Potato"
Back to top
IP Logged
 
Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box Drew Richardson
Especially Senior User
*****
Offline



Posts: 427
Joined: Sep 7th, 2001
Re: Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination?
Reply #2 - Aug 3rd, 2007 at 2:36pm
Mark & QuoteQuote Print Post  
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…
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Gender prejudice and or bias = discrimination?

Please type the characters that appear in the image. The characters must be typed in the same order, and they are case-sensitive.
Open Preview Preview

You can resize the textbox by dragging the right or bottom border.
Insert Hyperlink Insert FTP Link Insert Image Insert E-mail Insert Media Insert Table Insert Table Row Insert Table Column Insert Horizontal Rule Insert Teletype Insert Code Insert Quote Edited Superscript Subscript Insert List /me - my name Insert Marquee Insert Timestamp No Parse
Bold Italicized Underline Insert Strikethrough Highlight
                       
Change Text Color
Insert Preformatted Text Left Align Centered Right Align
resize_wb
resize_hb







Max 200000 characters. Remaining characters:
Text size: pt
More Smilies
View All Smilies
Collapse additional features Collapse/Expand additional features Smiley Wink Cheesy Grin Angry Sad Shocked Cool Huh Roll Eyes Tongue Embarrassed Lips Sealed Undecided Kiss Cry
Attachments More Attachments Allowed file types: txt doc docx ics psd pdf bmp jpe jpg jpeg gif png swf zip rar tar gz 7z odt ods mp3 mp4 wav avi mov 3gp html maff pgp gpg
Maximum Attachment size: 500000 KB
Attachment 1:
X