What Experts Say...
about the junk science of lie detection and the damage it has caused
About Polygraphs
"Polygraph testing now rests on weak scientific underpinnings despite nearly a century of study. And much of the available evidence for judging its validity lacks scientific rigor."
National Academy of Sciences National Research Council
1997 Journal of Applied Psychology survey put the polygraph test's accuracy rate at only 61 percent
Polygraph evidence is generally inadmissible in court because, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas noted in his majority opinion in the 1998 case U.S. v. Scheffer, "there is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable."
"Despite the claims of "lie detector" examiners, there is no machine that can detect lies with any degree of accuracy. The "lie detector" does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate, but those physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions such as anger, sadness, embarrassment and fear. In addition, a variety of medical conditions such as colds, headaches and neurological and muscular problems can distort the results. Indeed, as an American Medical Association expert testified during public hearings before Congress, "the [lie detector] cannot detect lies much better than a coin toss."
American Civil Liberties Union briefing paper
"...the theory and methods of polygraphic lie detection are not rocket science, indeed, they are not science at all."
Professor Emeritus David T. Lykken, US's foremost expert on the failings of polygraphy
"[Polygraph screening] is completely without any theoretical foundation and has absolutely no validity...the diagnostic value of this type of testing is no more than that of astrology or tea-leaf reading."
Dr. Drew C. Richardson, FBI Laboratory Division
former Supervisory Special Agent
"Tests that produce few of these types of errors, such as those currently used by several federal agencies, will not catch most major security violators – and still will incorrectly flag truthful people as deceptive."
National Academy of Sciences National Research Council
"The idea of basing any significant decision on the basis of a polygraph exam is ignorant, it's foolish, it's dangerous."
Dr. David Lykken, past president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research
"Polygraph testing has been the gold standard, but it's obviously fool's gold."
Prof. Stephen E. Fienberg
Chairman, Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph
National Academy of Sciences
"Whether it is screening applicants or screening employees, the polygraph is a failure. I suspect that its days as a screening tool are deservedly near an end."
former FBI Special Agent Mark Mallah
"[The CIA's] reliance on the polygraph is truly insane"
former CIA Director John M. Deutch
"The FBI uses the polygraph as an investigative tool and cautions that the results should not be relied upon to the exclusion of other evidence or knowledge obtained during the course of an investigation. This policy is based upon the fact that, a) the polygraph technique has not reached a level of acceptability within the relevant scientific community, b) scientific research has not been able to establish the true validity of polygraph testing in criminal applications, c) there is a lack of standardization within the polygraph community for training and for conducting polygraph examinations." James Murphy, Director FBI Polygraph Unit
Results of survey of members of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and Fellows of the American Psychological Association's Division 1 (General Psychology).
Survey return rates were high (91% and 74%, respectively). Most of the respondents believed that polygraphic lie detection is not theoretically sound, claims of high validity for these procedures cannot be sustained, the lie test can be beaten by easily learned countermeasures, and polygraph test results should not be admitted into evidence in courts of law.
U.S. Supreme Court (1998): "There is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable. To this day, the scientific community remains extremely polarized about the reliability of polygraph techniques. Some studies have concluded that polygraph tests overall are accurate and reliable. See, e.g., S. Abrams, The Complete Polygraph Handbook 190-191 (1968) (reporting the overall accuracy rate from laboratory studies involving the common "control question technique" polygraph to be "in the range of 87 percent"). Others have found that polygraph tests assess truthfulness significantly less accurately - that scientific field studies suggest the accuracy rate of the "control question technique" polygraph is "little better than could be obtained by the toss of a coin," that is, 50 percent."
"The best studies of polygraph tests, using real-life cases and published in top scientific journals, find that innocent people fare little better than chance on these tests, with 40% or more failing on average." William G. Iacono, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience University of Minnesota
To the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 2001 "Issues Surrounding the Use of Polygraphs"
"The polygraph is not perfect. Honest people have "failed" polygraph examinations while dishonest people have "passed" them. The polygraph is intrusive and may be abused. If misused, the polygraph can cause morale to deteriorate and ruin the careers of innocent people." -
Jeffrey H. Smith, former CIA general counsel
"The federal government's use of polygraph examinations is based more on a perception of insecurity on how best to address difficult security problems than one based on reason or logic. The policy has driven the science rather than the other way around. Even if one operated under the assumption that the polygraph protagonists' science is more accurate and that the device has a certain degree of utility, there is still ample room for abuse and error to occur, which it does. Each year federal agencies falsely accuse thousands of honest and trustworthy Americans of lying or having committed criminal acts. And many of those who are truly guilty of such offenses go undetected by the device. When considering this dispute as more a matter of policy, rather than debating the science or utility, one must conclude the polygraph causes more harm to our society than benefit."
Mark S. Zaid, Washington DC attorney specializing in National Security matters.
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The VSA is no better...
National Academy of Sciences: Is the VSA better than the Polygraph? "Some potential alternatives to the polygraph show promise...None shows any promise of supplanting the polygraph for screening purposes in the near term."
The VSA is not capable of distinguishing truth from deception in human speech.
Victor L. Cestaro, Ph.D.
researcher at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute
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Taking a Lie Detector Test
without proper preparation, guaranteed to be one of the most acutely uncomfortable experiences of your life...
"According to US Senate testimony prior to the passage of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act in 1988, an estimated 400,000 workers suffered adverse consequences each year after they were wrongly flunked on polygraphs."
"The experience was highly disturbing on a personal level for all the obvious reasons- it was invasive, my reputation was under constant assault, my career completely undermined, my integrity placed under suspicion, and I was definitively accused of sins which run completely against my values. This was, to say the least, a stressful and challenging odyssey."
Mark Mallah, FBI Special Agent from 1987 to 1996. This is his report of his experience in taking a polygraph examination.
As a polygraph examiner, the individual coming into the room, whether they are a truthful person or a person that's going to be deceptive or is a deceptive individual, they have to have a fear that they are going to be detected in a lie.
Testimony of FBI Special Agent Thomas Lewis
in U. S. v. Gilliard November 1997
"If you come in concerned and scared, that's normal and a good thing."
David M. Renzelman
Department of Energy Polygraph Program Chief
National Academy of Sciences: Overconfidence in polygraph screening can lead to credible claims that agencies that use polygraphs are infringing civil liberties for insufficient benefits to national security.
"Polygraph is more art than science, and unless an admission is obtained, the final determination is frequently what we refer to as a scientific wild-ass guess (SWAG)"
retired CIA polygrapher John F. Sullivan
"I don't know anything about polygraphs, and I don't know how accurate they are, but I know they'll scare the hell out of people."
President Richard M. Nixon
"Ironically, many of those flunking are exactly the people you'd think should be hired. According to David Lykken, a University of Minnesota psychologist and prominent critic of polygraphs, those most likely to "fail" are "the most innocent, those who have a strong conscience, and who respond strongly to any accusations or suspicions of wrongdoing. 'Nervous responses -- even truthful ones -- send the machine's quivering pens flying over the paper, which credulous examiners count as 'an attempt at deception.'
Jeff Stein
The Washington Post
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Beating the Polygraph...
"Polygraph depends on a universal bluff, and that bluff is that there is some diagnostic value to (the test.) Of course, that bluff is continually reduced as people become more aware of the whole thing."
Dr. Drew C. Richardson, FBI Laboratory Division
former Supervisory Special Agent
"The use of the polygraph (lie detector test) is not nearly as valid as some say and can easily be beaten and should never be admitted into evidence in courts of law, say psychologists from two scientific communities who were surveyed on the validity of polygraphs. This survey appears in the June issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Applied Psychology." -
press release from the APA, June 1997
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Links to Articles
Lie Detector Roulette
Mother Jones Magazine
"Even if the machine is wrong only 2 percent of the time, as the nation's leading trade group of polygraph examiners claims, the government is routinely denying jobs and promotions to thousands of people who are guilty of nothing more than nervousness."
http://motherjones.com/news/feature/2002/43/ma_148_01.html
Pseudoscience applied to scientists
US government agencies still using discredited polygraphy in security checks.
By Peg Brickley
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030326/01/
Lies, Dammed Lies, and Polygraphs
Salon.com article by Jeff Stein
national security and federal law enforcement writer
http://www.salon.com/april97/news/news2970410.html
Polygraphs and the National Labs: Dangerous Ruse Undermines National Security
Skeptical Inquirer magazine
July/August 2002
by Alan P. Zelicoffm
"The truth is this: The polygraph is a ruse, carefully constructed as a tool of intimidation, and used as an excuse to conduct an illegal inquisition under psychologically and physically unpleasant circumstances. Spies know how to beat it, and no court in the land permits submission of polygraphs, even to exonerate the accused."
Zelicoffm is a physician and physicist and Senior Scientist in the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratories
http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-07/polygraph.html
Polygraph Testing Too Flawed for Security Screening
National Academy of Sciences National Research Council http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309084369?OpenDocument
Truth or Consequences
Scientific Amercan magazine
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000F073F-D48E-1C73-9B81809EC588EF21
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Articles Not Online
Polygraphs: Worse than Worthless
27 May 2003
Senior Scientist Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff comments on polygraph screening in this Washington Post op-ed piece
In late 2001 the National Academy of Sciences published its findings. It determined that the polygraph was not a worthless tool -- indeed, that it was much worse than worthless. The report said that "available evidence indicates that polygraph testing as currently used has extremely serious limitations . . . if the intent is both to identify security risks and protect valued employees." The NAS panel, made up of internationally respected psychologists and statisticians, further determined that the test was so nonspecific that even if the polygraphers managed to finally uncover their first spy, at least 100 innocent laboratory employees would have their clearances yanked because of the "false positives" inherent in the test. The NAS concluded: "Polygraph testing yields an unacceptable choice . . . between too many loyal employees falsely judged deceptive and too many major security threats left undetected. Its accuracy . . is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies." It doesn't get much clearer than that.
Polygraph: DOE Decides to Simply Reissue Its Old Policy
Bob Park of the American Physical Society in his weekly 'What's New' column
April 2003
"The National Academy of Sciences completed its review of scientific evidence on the polygraph). The NAS report, "The Polygraph and Lie Detection" (NAS Press, 2003), found polygraph tests to be unacceptable for Department of Energy employee security screening because of the high rate of false positives and susceptibility to countermeasures... The DOE position seems to be that the polygraph tests are working fine and false positives are just unavoidable collateral damage.
'What's New' therefore recommends replacing the polygraph with a coin toss. If a little collateral damage is not a problem, coins will catch fully half of all spies, a vast improvement over the polygraph, which has never caught even one. Moreover, coins are notoriously difficult to train, making them impervious to countermeasures."
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