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