Can't Trust Lie Detectors

from the not-a-surprise-there dept

While most people know that lie detector tests aren't foolproof and can often be beaten, some researchers have put out an interesting report suggesting that those who do use polygraph machines for things like job screening are probably wasting their time. While lie detectors can be somewhat helpful in determing if someone is lying about a specific thing, determining future actions or asking general questions about intentions aren't going to be very helpful - and often turning up false positives. Unfortunately, what happens is that organizations using lie detectors begin to rely on the results too much, thereby counting out plenty of qualified workers. Recently, lie detector tests are becoming more popular in screening government works for security risks, this could be a problem. The researchers are recommending that the government stop relying on polygraph data for this purpose.