Deborah Rheuban

There is a problem with lie detectors

Apr 24, 2010 iThoughts

If when a person lies there is a physiological response to the untruth than the machine wouldn’t need an attendant.  All that would be necessary would be to connect the suspected liar to the Lie Detector and let the machine ask the questions, record the response and measure the physiological markers.  However the reality is that when a person lies there is no physical response unless a very intimidating person is listening.

In spear toting primitive cultures liars were meted out by applying the fire heated head of a spear on the tongue of the suspected liar.  If a person was telling the truth there would be enough saliva to dull the heat.  However the liar would have a dry mouth and the tongue would burn.  This worked because a primitive man holding a red hot spear head is very intimidating.  We have the modern equivalent of that in the nice Jewish lady Judge Judy.  She is so intimidating that when she asks a question and the answer is a lie she can detect the subtle physical “tells” including the dry mouth.  The only reason for the Lie Detector is to create something tangible as a memento of the “test.” Apparently little squiggles on paper prove the lie and let us know that the “testee” was intimidated by the “tester.”

Tags: courtroom, headlines, lie detectors, political photoshop, politically correct, politically incorrect