A polygraph, also referred to as a lie detector, is a machine that is used to measure and record different psychological factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, galvanic skin response and respiration. This is normally done as the person under study is asked to answer a set of questions that have been predetermined by the interrogators. The use of a lie detector is based on the belief that deceptive answers will lead to the production of psychological responses that can be differentiated from non-deceptive ones. The purpose of this essay is to provide a comprehensive analysis of why polygraphs are considered as a pseudoscience.
A research conducted by the National Association of Sciences in 2003 shows that majority of polygraph results are unreliable, unscientific and biased (Langan, 2005). This shows that most of the tests that are conducted using this machine are significantly flawed based on the assumption that individuals will react in a certain manner because of a guilty conscience if they are lying. According to Langan, (2005), the psychological responses that are measured by the polygraph are not uniquely related to deception. There is no scientific research data that shows the correlation between the psychological indices and an individual’s level of deception. Whereas some people may be anxious because they are lying, it is also possible that they may exhibit this trait because they are afraid the interrogator may think they are lying. They may therefore experience a guilty reaction over a distinct and unrelated event.
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Polygraphs are considered as a pseudoscience because some individuals have the ability to control their psychological responses. This implies that the results in these tests will be misleading for people who have perfected the art of deception. In addition to this, lie detectors cannot work on psychopaths or mentally challenged individuals who may have no anxiety and remorse for the crime they have committed. These machines are therefore not an accurate measure of lies and truths because they operate based on a set of assumptions that have never been proven to be 100% valid.
Reference
Langan, M. L. (2005). The art of deception: Polygraph lie detection. Originally published in Gray Areas , 4 (1).
