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Arguments Against Polygraph Testing

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“Lie detector tests have become a popular cultural icon - from crime dramas to comedies to advertisements” (American Psychology Association) Polygraph tests have been shown throughout several years as the scientific method of convicting criminals. But this method has been proven incorrect. The test is not completely falsifiable because there is not an actual method to determine if someone is lying 100 percent of the time. Polygraph tests are not admissible in court due to the little amount of scientific information to judge someone’s ability to tell the truth. This type of theory would be considered a part of the pseudoscience, and throughout this article would be proven why.

To continue to describe this claim, polygraph testing has been …show more content…

Polygraph testing would be considered an exaggerated claim because there is no scientific validity to back up the emotional response. “Because it measures physiological arousal rather than lying per se, the polygraph test is prone to mislabeling innocent persons guilty.” (Lilienfeld, Landfield 1222) As previously discussed, this test is based upon emotions, which the article by Scott Lilienfeld and Kristen Landfield further proves the pseudoscience behind polygraph testing. Throughout law enforcement and police officials’ careers, they are faced with daily challenges in pseudoscience, and the article further describes how lie detection is a part of that process. It also discusses in the article that they agree that the lie detectors should not be administered in a court of law. Another theory that comes into effect when discussing lie detector testing is terror management theory. This is a theory that is “proposing awareness of our death leaving an underlying sense of terror” (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Namy, Woolf, Cramer, & Schmaltz 14). If the test is administered during a murder trial and the polygraph is what will foresee the conviction, one may have too many emotions attached to thoroughly answer the questions truthfully. Thus, the test may result in something fatal or just as consequential causing false answers. People are more afraid to die …show more content…

By paying attention to key warning signs of pseudoscience many people, including figures of authority, are able to understand why basing someone’s heart rate, blood pressure and skin conductivity is an unscientific way of determining truth. (Lilienfeld, 1226 ) This just further proves why polygraphs are not admissible in court, let alone in the scientific

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