Beardsley, Tim. “Truth or Consequences: A Polygraph Screening Program Raises Questions About the Science of Lie Detection.” – Brief Article
Jodi Chapman
Beardsley, Tim. “Truth or Consequences: A Polygraph Screening Program Raises Questions About the Science of Lie Detection.” Scientific American, October 1999, pp. 21, 24. The spying fiasco at Los Alamos National Labs prompted the Department of Energy to mandate polygraph screening of employees at three national nuclear laboratories. David T. Lykken, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, argues that there is no proof that polygraph screening will detect spies. He says that a real spy can learn to fool the test, and points our that Aldrich Ames, who spied for Russia, passed routine screening exams. Lykken argues that while polygraph screening is useful for guilty-knowledge tests, it is not useful for this type of mass screening, which relies on assumptions.
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