- published: 08 Jul 2016
- views: 31707
A polygraph, popularly referred to as a lie detector, measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. The belief underpinning the use of the polygraph is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers; the polygraph is one of several devices used for lie detection.
The polygraph was invented in 1921 by John Augustus Larson, a medical student at the University of California at Berkeley and a police officer of the Berkeley Police Department in Berkeley, California. The polygraph was on the Encyclopædia Britannica 2003 list of greatest inventions, described as inventions that "have had profound effects on human life for better or worse."
The efficacy of polygraphs is debated in the scientific community. In 2001, a significant fraction of the scientific community considered polygraphy to be pseudoscience. In 2002, a review by the National Academies of Science found that in populations untrained in countermeasures, polygraph testing can discriminate lying from truth telling at rates above chance, though below perfection. These results apply only to specific events and not to screening where it is assumed that polygraph would work less well. Effectiveness may also be worsened by countermeasures.
(Yeah!)
(Yeah!)
If it makes you feel better
Here's a little tip
If I screwed up
You'd be the first
To get hip
You are the lie detector
(Yeah!)
Waiting for a slip
Ain't no way to live.
I gotta take the test
If you've gotta give.
You are the lie detector
You are the lie detector
You are the truth protector
You are the lie detector girl, yeah
What kind of thing could be
Running through your mind?
What the hell you thinking that
You're gonna find?
Nothing!
Nothing!
You got nothing on me!
(Yeah!)
(Yeah!)
Officer, prosecutor,
Judge, and Jury too.
What the hell you think
exactly that you're gonna prove?
You are the lie detector (Yeah!)
You are the lie detector (Yeah!)
You are the truth protector
You are the lie detector girl, yeah
(Yeah!)
You are the lie detector
You are the truth protector
You are the lie detector girl, yeah