Lie detectors (Polygraph Tests) are often shown in movies as a way to tell whether someone is telling the truth or not. The American Psychological Association suggests they are not an accurate determinant, are they correct?
Negative
From 6 verified experts:
6 answered Unlikely or higher
Guy Madison has answered Unlikely
An expert from Umeå university in Psychology
It's a difficult question because it includes a comparison: "the most accurate". So the question then becomes, compared to what? To find out the thruth from objective sources is probably the best, but if you compare to looking the suspected liar in the eyes, a polygraph, or e-meter, or Galvanic Skin Response meter is probably better.
What such an instrument does is measure autonomic responses of the sympathetic nervous system. The lie detection test, however, also includes procedures carried out by a human operator, which are therefore susceptible to subjectivity. The operator has to ask series of questions that consitiute a mix of benign, neutral topics (e.g. "what did you have for breakfast today"), some are related to the suspected lie, and some are generally contentious (e.g. "have you ever been unfaithful"), and the operator interprets and assesses the readings and compares them across types of questions, chooses new questions based on readings for previous questions, and moves on in an iterative fashion. This process is clearly subjective to a substantial extent.
But another problem is that detecting lying is this fashion makes several assumptions that are not always met, for example that the liar has a typical moral stance, is aware that they are lying, and actually feels embarrassed about it. This kind of test does typically not work for sociopaths and psychopaths.
Answered over 5 years ago
Did this expert answer help you?
We rely on donors and members to keep trusted facts flowing freely for everyone. So we ask if you have learnt new knowledge from our community or like the idea of an independent fact-checking platform powered by science, you can support Metafact for as little as $2.
Support MetafactBe the first one to join the discussion