Word: polygraphers
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Trying to find that edge for Jimmy Carter, Caddell has used some offbeat techniques. During the conventions, he wired up more than 100 "focus group" volunteers around the country with a kind of emotion-revealing polygraph to monitor their reactions to Ronald Reagan's and Carter's acceptance speeches, noting which passages excited them and which stirred no response. But the real key to his operation is almost constant polling, surveys remarkable for their numbers, length and depth...
...nation's estimated 3,500 examiners generally claim an accuracy rate of 90% for lie detectors or polygraphs. Critics put the figure much lower. In an upcoming book, A Tremor in the Blood, University of Minnesota Psychiatry and Psychology Professor David Lykken maintains that the most prevalent test is correct only two-thirds of the time, and, more critically, that it is far more likely to err when the person being tested is truthful. Lykken also argues that polygraph sensors-which monitor changes in breathing, pulse rate, blood pressure and the conductivity of the skin as the subject...
...admitted industry problem. Operators still do not need licenses in half of the states, including New York and California. Says Joseph Buckley, who heads the Chicago office of John E. Reid and Associates, one of the nation's leading testing firms: "Like an X ray, a polygraph records data that take a lot of expertise to interpret. In the wrong hands, it's worse than nothing...
...tests far outweigh the risks. For one thing, they are quicker and more efficient than background checks, and cheaper too ($35 to $150, vs. an average of $300). Meantime, with a recession putting more pressure on the bottom line, executives feel more vulnerable to quick-fingered workers. The American Polygraph Association claims that as many as three out of four employees handling money and merchandise steal. The total take: $20 billion or more a year...
...soaring popularity of polygraphs in private industry has somewhat overshadowed controversies about them in law enforcement, although their use in that area is also increasing. Last year the FBI administered 1,900 tests, 800 more than in 1978. Rarely, however, does polygraph evidence find its way into court. Because of doubts about its reliability, most state and federal courts will not admit it, and those that do generally require that both sides agree to its introduction...