Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Dec 16, 2010 at 8:05am
Aaron Miller drew our attention to this news item about corruption cases among Homeland Security personnel:
James Tomsheck, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol assistant commissioner, told the panel the drug cartels operating in Mexico are making a concerted effort to infiltrate CBP, and the agency is responding with more screening of job applicants with polygraph tests and background investigations.
This reminded me of a long-standing question. Why on earth are we still using the polygraph? Why not, say, tarot cards? There's roughly the same amount of evidence that they work.
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Comments :
Sep '10
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
I have always assumed that the use of a polygraph in these type of setting is more to apply psychological pressure to the person being questioned, rather than to ascertain any truths.
Aug '10
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
On the other hand, medieval trial by ordeal actually seems to be pretty effective. Maybe the government should have people seeking security clearance walk across hot coals or something. (The first hint not to give it to them is if they ask if there's a cd player at the trial so they can bring a Lady Gaga cd).
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
I have a feeling that members of Mexican drug cartels who are trying to infiltrate the CBP just aren't going to be that impressed. It's junk science. Relying on it makes exactly as much sense as confiscating my granny's nail file at the airport and has all the drawbacks of that scheme.
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
Really a description of exactly the same thing, except the polygraph is less effective.
Jul '10
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
And why are so many employers still using "personality surveys"? Total hogwash. Especially the most widely-used one: Myers-Briggs, which was cooked up by a Pennsylvania housewife with no education in psychology or any related field. Time and again, research shows that people who re-take Myers-Briggs rarely come up with the same results.
Oh, brave new world, where something so wonderfully diverse as human nature can be reduced to numbers on a clipboard or spikes on a polygraph chart.
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
Claire, thanks for raising this point. The polygraph has about as much scientific support as phrenology. If you must undergo the ordeal, just take some metoprolol beforehand to guarantee a flat response. Of course, the performance artist running the test may flunk you anyway since it's essentially a subjective evaluation.
I wonder if Major Nidal Hasan ever had a polygraph test to support his security clearance. Care to bet on the result?
Edited on Dec 16, 2010 at 4:13pmRe: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
George, it's one of those cases where the phony, flamboyantly stupid security measure is worse than doing nothing, because it lulls the organizations that rely on it into misplaced confidence and laziness about doing the real work of figuring out who's a security risk. The catalogue of disasters that can be traced to this is very long.
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
You're a shameless troll, arkadaşım.
I have a couple things to say about this but probably the most pertinent is the fact that (last time I checked), no other major intelligence agency (and maybe no other full-stop) uses the polygraph because it's known to be so unreliable.
That said, it's not going away any time soon, near as I can tell. It's a great preemptive CYA measure for the security bureaucracy (especially in the ramped-up post-Ames era), and the only people with any power to change things are the President or Congress, who have no political incentive to do so and a huge downside risk in being accused of risking national security by abolishing it. Whatever its success rates in its job, the intelligence bureaucracy is a great lobbyist and political infighter.
So we'll have Magic Box Voodoo for some time to come…
Re: Why are We Still Using the Polygraph?
This is a great point. It's a nice analogue to the current TSA scan-and-grope regime. it seems to be an American reflex to choose technological solutions and a quantity-over-quality approach to a lot of problems. In fact, a long-time criticism of our intelligence-gathering methodology is an overreliance on ELINT/SIGINT (“electronic intelligence”/“signals intelligence,” i.e., satellites, computers, Eschelon, &c.) at the expense of HUMINT (what you think of as traditional spying), along with a overbroad, indiscriminate approach to cultivating foreign assets rather than identifying and cultivating high-value assets.
If only someone had written a witty and acute satire of such things that’s available for just $12.82 at Amazon.com just in time for Christmas!