So Are You Lying?
I’ve wanted to write about this a few days ago after listening on Mix.fm’s Breakfast Show for the past few weeks since I’m back to Malaysia. If you listen to Mix.fm while driving to work in the morning like me, then you must have heard about their daily lie detector test every weekday morning.
It’s also called a polygraph test.
There were people who put their cheating spouse on the lie detector. A wife put her husband’s secretary to test to find out about their secret affair. A woman put her fiance to test to find out whether he cheats on her. A colleague put his senior who back stabbed him to obtain promotion. A son put his father to test to find out whether he still blames him for his divorce.
There are a lot more examples, but my memory is only that good that I only remember these above.
Having listen to this everyday for the past few weeks, it had me thinking; why not we put people like our PM, DPM, Home Minister, AG, IGP, RPK, Anwar and Saiful on the lie detector? That would certainly make the program MUCH more interesting rather than focusing petty petty issues like that we have now.
But, IF only it will ever happen.
Here in Malaysia, everyone is accusing everyone else of lying. Read the papers and you’ll know about it. The newspapers in the past few months has became more of a joke to me rather than serving it’s main purpose; to provide accurate information.
At least the sports section still provides accurate information.
So who’s lying and who’s not? No one will ever know except they themselves. Or will we get an answer if these people are put on to the lie detector?
There are certain cases where people are not only accusing each other. It goes as far as swearing, or even suing each other to prove their point.
After doing a quick lookup on Google, I’ve found out that the accuracy and reliability of the lie detector is somewhere 90-95%, which is quite high. However, this also depends on the person who’s asking the questions.
On the radio, it’s advertised that it’s 99% accurate.
If it’s that accurate, why not let these people take the tests?
Comments
2 Responses to “So Are You Lying?”
Leave a Reply
-
-
-
Tags
Life flight availability Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Kingfisher Football Obvious Adams desert England Misc cairo dust storm snooker Berlin Wall Formula 1 Manchester United Manchester Opinions dog United States Wimbledon Audible Nikon Change Bernard Loke mix.fm malaysia airlines Travels Victoria Memorial Sngapore Airlines Firefox
I am concerned about the accuracy of these exams. I am a certified polygraph examiner and court-qualified expert with 24 years experience. Most polygraphs conducted for the media are not done to any current standards and have no reliability whatsoever. For examiner, an exam generally takes 1 to 2 hours in a private room with no disturbances or interference. In other words, it’s too long and boring to be televised in real time. Please be sure the techniques used are validated by the American Polygraph Association before relying on any determinations.
Michael, thanks for the insights into polygraph tests. On the radio station, the person who ask the questions are the DJ’s and the person behind the machine is a polygraph expert.