Polygraph Accuracy: More Interesting Facts

The following are just a few additional notes, interesting facts, and my comments related to polygraph accuracy, or--to be more precise--the lack of accuracy.

- The scientific consensus is that polygraph testing does not have a scientific basis. If this is science, why don't the scientists think so?

- Many polygraph operators have less than a few months of training.

- Numerous famous spies passed the polygraph tests they were given (Ignatz Theodor Griebl, Karel Frantisek Koecher, Jiri Pasovsky, and Aldrich Hazen Ames, among others).

- The inventor of the lie-detector, William Moulton Marston, also created the comic book character Wonder Woman (under the pen name Charles Moulton), with her magic "Lasso of Truth," which makes those in its coils tell the truth (his machine was not a true "polygraph" because it graphed just one variable - blood pressure).

- The originator of the CIA's polygraph program (started in 1948), Cleve Backster, believes plants can read our thoughts. based on his experiments hooking plants up to a polygraph.. His "scientific" claims were refuted by several more serious scientists, who showed that Backster didn't use proper controls in his studies, among other errors.

- Edward I. Gelb, a past-president of the American Polygraph Association, has a phony Ph.D. Even after learning this, the APA did not rescind his membership, and Gelb has been interviewed about the polygraph on numerous television shows.

- Sheila Reed developed the U.S. Government's polygraph "Test for Espionage and Sabotage." However, after questioning how the test was being used and how examiners were being taught at the Department of Defense, she had her security clearance taken away. She was also interrogated by Army detectives, and fired.

Why would the Department of defense fire someone for pointing out real flaws, questioning polygraph accuracy, and trying to get at the truth? That brings us to the larger question of why the polygraph test is still used at all.

Continues here... The Lie Detector: Why is it Used?

Beat a Lie Detector Test | Polygraph Accuracy: More Interesting Facts