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Article: AMA advises against use of lie detectors
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- September 7, 1986
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Businessmen shouldn't use lie detectors to weed out job
applicants because the machines often are wrong, the American Medical
Association says. Polygraphs are 75 to 97 percent accurate in
tagging guilty parties. But the number of innocent people the
machines also accuse "is often sufficiently high to preclude use of
this test as the sole arbiter of guilt or innocence," said a report
of the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs. Polygraphs don't directly
measure lies. Rather, they record fluctuations in blood pressure,
pulse, breathing and palm sweat as a person answers questions. The
American Civil Liberties Union estimated in 1983 that employers give
1 million polygraphs a year to determine ...