The Social Organization of Lie-Detector Tests

Abstract

Most research on polygraphy has examined the technique's laboratory success in singling out deceptive from truthful subjects. This article, in contrast, views lie-detector tests as a social control convention and focuses upon the technique's social organization and interactive context. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with polygraph examiners and the second author's lengthy experience as a practicing examiner, the article describes the examiner's craft and the test encounter. The setting and interaction are organized toward two interrelated goals: to produce “good charts” and to generate admissions and confessions. These ends in turn are sought by “selling” the subject on the polygraph's ability to detect deception, overcoming subjects' “countermeasures,” and presenting test results to subjects in ways that can induce confessions. These everyday features of polygraph work must be understood before we can appreciate the wider legal, ethical, and policy meanings of lie detection.