The National Security Administration (NSA) recently posted a video attempting to quell applicant anxiety about taking a polygraph test as part of its pre-employment selection process. Whether this has the desired impact or not remains to be seen. However, the use of lie detectors for job selection has a long and interesting history.

The "father of polygraph" was a Harvard psychologist named William Marston (who later went on to fame and fortune as creator of the “Wonderwoman” comic book character). It was thought that the truth of a candidate’s responses could be determined by measuring changes in blood pressure, breathing, and other physiological indices. Unfortunately, data supporting the validity of lie detectors has never been strong, and a federal law passed in 1988 largely prevented the use of polygraphs for pre-employment screening other than by the government in the case of national security, defense or law enforcement. (It is also interesting to note that the development of “integrity” or work attitude tests in the late 1980s was spurred by this law and the desire to find more effective ways to select good employees.)  While the polygraphs’ proponents acknowledge its limitation, they support its use continued as an interrogation aid in encouraging individuals to reveal information that they may not have otherwise.

Reid Klion