October 3, 2003, here on slacktivist: Lying about polygraphs
There is no such thing as a “lie detector.”
A polygraph merely measures stress. Or, rather, it measures responses which — in some people, in some circumstances — may indicate increased stress. That is a far more modest claim that the ridiculous notion that these machines are “lie detectors.”
Polygraphs are also notoriously stress-inducing and intimidating. Often all they are able to measure, in fact, is a person’s understandable discomfort at the process of being hooked up to such a contraption.
Referring to polygraphs as “lie detectors” is inaccurate and, well, a lie.
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