onsomekindofstartrek:

memecucker:

dingdongyouarewrong:

since polygraphs aren’t admissible in court because they’re nonsense junk science, a primary purpose they serve in interrogations is essentially using them as a prop to ramp up the pressure on a suspect. it’s all a big performance and no one should ever submit to one if they have the option not to

Also since cops can lie to you during interrogations about anything that isn’t directly about the law (never agree to interrogation without a lawyer) a fun thing they often do is administer a polygraph and then proceed to inform the suspect that the test says they are being deceptive even when the machine says otherwise. So yeah their function is entirely as an intimidation tactic

So you know NONE of this is common knowledge among Americans, right? We’re pretty much led to believe that they ARE reliable and ARE admissible in court.

And while some of us know they’re not reliable, most people think, this being the fucking US and all, that they are admissible regardless.

This is going to be news to a lot of people, and good news at that.