Comment by jghn

10 hours ago

It'd matter more if polygraphs weren't completely bogus pseudoscience in the first place

Sure, but don't you find it a little curious that these tests are being waived so selectively? If the FBI believes polygraphs serve some purpose, why would it choose to waive them?

  • Does it bother me? Yes. But the real solution is to not have polygraphs at all, not to get upset that a few people didn't get them.

    • Let's ignore that they're crap.

      Person A believes they work.

      Person A says "we shouldn't use this on Persons B, C, D".

      Pretty major implications about the integrity and suitability of Persons B, C, and D, and about how Person A suspects they have stuff to hide.

      (In some ways this is a good reason to keep them around. Even if some people know they're crap, the existence and popular mythology causes people to reveal more than they otherwise would through actions like this.)

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    • That solution is to a problem that is not the topic of conversation here.

      The problem is selective waiving of vetting processes due to political pressure and affiliation.

      Acting as if the efficacy of the vetting process is a point relevant to this conversation either implies you believe they waived this process for these three due to their ineffectiveness - very much not the belief held my most observers, why just 3 then - otherwise it’s a pure strawman argument. Neither option is good.

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    • You really mean it's not worth getting upset that employees are put through stupid and sometimes even quite invasive or degrading questioning in a humiliating and fear-driven process that bosses don't?

      3 replies →

  • Nope. The tests don't do anything. It sucks that we require them for anybody but I have bigger fairness fish to fry with this administration.

I think distinction needs to be made between:

* Polygraph “tests” presented as objective, independent evidence for the truth or falsehood of statements, and

* Polygraph used as an additional channel (similar to but on top of assessment of body language, voice tone, etc.) by an interviewer to determine how to guide an interview to elicit information from a subject, including information that they might prefer to conceal.

Many say the same about remote viewing but results matter.

  • If remote viewing would be a thing, spy networks would not be necessary and encryption would not matter.

    • If people believed remote viewing was real, law enforcement would say they had a psychic witness their suspect commit the crime.

The reason it's interesting is that the subjects of these fake tests thought they might work and thus they skipped them.

It's irrelevant whether they do anything. It's more important why they were skipped. What questions would the interviewer ask that they didn't want to risk answering?

  • > The reason it's interesting is that the subjects of these fake tests thought they might work and thus they skipped them.

    This is just something you made up. Here's an alternative idea:

    You are deciding whether to take a test. The test's results are 100% subjective. Anything you say during the test can be interpreted as a negative statement about yourself, and this determination will be made by the examiner.

    Is taking this test a good idea? Why or why not?