Despite reliability doubts by scientists government use of polygraphs grows

Raw Story
May. 01, 2006

Despite reliability doubts by scientists the government's use of polygraph machines to "detect lies" is rapidly growing, reports the Washington Post on Monday.

Excerpts from the article written by Dan Eggen and Shankar Vedantam:

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The CIA, the FBI and other federal agencies are using polygraph machines more than ever to screen applicants and hunt for lawbreakers, even as scientists have become more certain that the equipment itself is ineffective in accurately detecting when people are lying.

Instead, many experts say, the real utility of the polygraph machine, or "lie detector," is that many of the tens of thousands of people who are subjected to it each year believe that it works - and thus will frequently admit to things they might not otherwise acknowledge during an interview or interrogation.

Many researchers and defense attorneys say the technology is prone to a high number of false results that have stalled or derailed hundreds of careers and have prevented many qualified applicants from joining the fight against terrorism. At the FBI, for example, about 25 percent of applicants fail their polygraph exam each year, according to the bureau's security director.

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FULL ARTICLE HERE