::THE POLYGRAPH: The Modern Lie Detector ::
The Impact of the Polygraph in America

The impact of the polygraph on the United States government, particularly the United States Military:

             As early as World War I, the military became interested in technological advances in the field of lie detection. The Army Intelligence Service and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Department of Justice hired William M. Marston to help evaluate methods of lie detection to use to distinguish spies.²   During the 1930s, the polygraph created by Keeler was available to police departments, research laboratories, the United States government and, even private businesses.³   Of course, even during World War II, when the polygraph was available for use, “both Allied and Axis countries used physical torture and more sophisticated methods to gather information,” according to Stan Abrams's discussion of this period in his book, The Complete Polygraph Handbook.⁴   The real use of the polygraph by the United States government and the military came into play in the 1950s, during the Cold War with Russia. As United States Senator Joseph McCarthy, a leading figure in the search for Communist spies, said in 1954, “I am convinced you cannot fool the lie detector.”⁵  When McCarthy began making accusations of the United States Army, the army fought his suggestion that witnesses in their case be submitted to the polygraph examination.⁶  The trust in this device was obviously enough to make the military a little nervous about its use in the trials.
     It would not be until the 1960s when the question would arise as to whether the polygraph was a valid method for lie detection. Referring to the 1960s, Abrams claims, “Polygraphy now has achieved the level of being more a science than an art.”⁷   However, at this same time, there was serious questioning of its accuracy. Even J. Edgar Hoover, made it clear he did not trust this device when he banned its use by the Federal Bureau Investigation (returned to use in 1978 when the Polygraph Unit was established).⁸  In 1965, a congressional committee concluded the accuracy of the polygraph was insufficient.⁹   In the twentieth and twenty-first century, the United States government has continued to use the polygraph to evaluate employees, especially federal agencies involved in national defense.  The Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 only protect employees of private businesses from these screenings.¹⁰  The role of the polygraph within the federal government has been ambiguous given the lack of an alternative that had the same faith of the American public as the polygraph.

The impact of the polgraph on American society:


    It used to be enough for a witness in a trial to swear upon a bible, but now comes the question: why take someone’s word that they were telling the truth when you could just administer a polygraph examination? In 1923, the use of Marston’s lie detector test was rejected by the court in the case of Frye v. the United States, but that was based on the fact that Marston’s test was based only on one physiological reading.  The question of the legality of the use of the polygraph in the American courtroom has dominated discussions of the use of the polygraph in society since 1923.¹² The government domination of this technology since the 1980s has meant that the majority of the controversy concerning its validity has remained within the government, although the public has been exposed to the numerous newspaper articles discussing trials and new studies that have destroyed the reputation of the polygraph. Now the Internet contains a plethora of websites of how to pass the polygraph examination.
A Few Examples:
       · "How to Sting the Polygraph," http://www.polygraph.com/
       · "Polygraph Test - Pass It Everytime!" http://www.police-test.net/
       · "Learn How to Pass (or Beat) A Polygraph Test," http://antipolygraph.org/

It is amusing considering that once this modern lie detector was marketed as being unbeatable.


The impact of the polygraph in American culture:

        In the movie, Meet the Parents, Robert DeNiro is an ex-CIA agent and “human lie detector,” who must now deal with meeting his future son-in-law, Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller.¹³ However, even after he has hooked Greg up to a polygraph machine, he cannot trust him. Produced in 2000, this movie is a perfect example of the growing mistrust of the equipment, although it is still in use today. What keeps the polygraph in use is the fact that some people still believe that it works, with the right application,"even though the polygraph has no intrinsic scientific validity," ¹⁴ as refrained by Benjamin Kleinmuntz and Julian Szucko in their article,"Lie Detection in Ancient and Modern Times: A Call for Contemporary Scientific Study."  In his article on the American marketing of the polygraph, Ken Adler stresses the power of persuasion in his suggestions that it was men like Keeler involved in the production of the polygraph who created this belief in the polygraph, "in order to increase the demand for their services, and also because this belief greatly increased the degree to which the lie detector intimidated subjects."¹⁵  This intimidation factor is meant to make the job of the examiner easier in theory. However, it was the fear of technology itself, not the examiner, that grew in time, along with this belief in the effectiveness of the polygraph. It is in America that the lie detector becomes an object of veneration, a piece of equipment meant to aid in the process of lie detection becomes the lie detector itself.