Talk:Polygraph

cleve Backster
This guy is deserving of mention. He apparently is well thought of in the "polygraph industry" "The Backster School of Lie Detection is located in San Diego, California, and is the longest running polygraph school in the world. The school was originally founded in New York City in 1960, shortly after Mr. Backster left his position with the Central Intelligence Agency. Backster founded the CIA's polygraph unit shortly after World War II.". He seems to have a thing about plants reading human emotions. Does it (plants reading humans) or he (Backster) deserve their own articles? Pippa (talk) 13:58, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry for replying a few years late here, but... Sounds missional as hell. Should be included in the polygraph article, no doubt. Especially . Reverend Black Percy (talk) 09:58, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

Pseudoscience
What is the reasoning behind having the Psychology bar on the right of the page instead of the Pseudoscience one? &mdash; Unsigned, by: 79.66.210.239 / talk / contribs 01:28, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Good point. Someone more familiar with categories shall see to it--  01:35, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Done and done Secret Squirrel (talk) 01:47, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * True, if it has any genuine use it would be physiology rather than psychology. ADK ...I'll pasteurize your boat! 13:07, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * No. It would concern the autonomous nervous system, but in a way that psychologists would determine--  13:58, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * 79.66.210.239 here. Nice to see how fast this was resolved. Decided to register and hope to have things to add. Vattic (talk) 20:44, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I read somewhere that soviets used polygraph as a part of medical exam, to check for stress tolerance. I wonder if as a result of this a spy would be less likely to fail a polygraph exam than a non-spy. Dmytry (talk) 04:39, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

Utility of polygraphs
I unfortunately have no citations for this, but I remember reading that polygraphs are used in some circumstances because:

1) It can intimidate some people into confessing.

2) Those administering the polygraph can see which individuals are nervous about taking the polygraph, or which questions an individual is nervous about.

In other words, polygraphs can have utility because some testees *think* they work. -- Matthew Cline (talk) 04:37, 1 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Sure; it's largely placebo/nocebo on part of the person being tested (assuming they don't know how to cheat it by clenching their anus and so on), and it's largely an astrological reading for the interpreter. Also, all the tricks in statistics and polling on getting a reply based on how you phrase the questions also apply during the interview. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 09:57, 1 September 2016 (UTC)