The polygraph and celebrity lap-dancing

[CFLarsen]

Now, that's catching headline, eh? :)

Actor Ben Affleck...oh, heck, you know the story. You read the tabloids, just like everyone else! :)

From a CNN story:

"She (the lap dancer) asks for punitive damages against the Enquirer, saying the tabloid should have known Morris was an unreliable source because she failed at least one polygraph test, and passed only after taking Ativan, an anti-anxiety medication."
Source: Dancer sues tabloid over Affleck sex stories (http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/16/affleck.stripper.reut/index.html)

It seems very logical that anti-anxiety medication can improve your chances of passing a polygraph test. That does raise a very important question:

If someone can pass a polygraph test by taking medication, are people who are "polygraphed" then tested for these medications?

If not, it would seem like yet another blow to the use of the machine.

[Yahweh]

Sue tabloids for punitive damages, WHAT A NEAT CONCEPT!

Clearly if you can train yourself very quickly to fool a polygraph, then its not a very accurate machine.

If you can take a polygraph test twice, be asked the same questions, and recieve two different results, clearly the polygraph machine's credibility is dealt a mighty blow.

If medicines, anxieties, traumas, emotions in general can skew a polygraph's results, the validity of the polygraph machine's results is at question.

I dont believe the polygraph is a very useful machine, no wonder is not useable as an admissable piece of evidence in a courtroom.

(Very catchy headline, indeed!)

[Ladewig]

If someone can pass a polygraph test by taking medication, are people who are "polygraphed" then tested for these medications

No, but the more comprehensive polygraphologists will begin the test by asking if the subject is on any medication. They then tell the subject that this information is necessary to "calibrate" the machine.

I've always wondered what would happen if one asked to see the manual that lists all dosages of all common drugs (and all combinations) and how each entry results in a different "calibration."

I've been trying to think of any technology other than the polygraph that has not improved over the last 70 years. How discouraging that a lie detector operator from the 1930's could be transported into the 21st century and could operate a state of the art device with absolutely no re-training at all. In fact the only thing that I can imagine that might give him away would be his saying, "we need to let the vacuum tubes in the machine warm up before we start."

[tim]

How refreshing to read a discussion about "celebrity gossip" where nobody CARES who the subjects were or what they've done, but merely the polygraph question! Excellent!
:D