| While I totally agree with you, I... have a theory. It might be psychological warfare. I would wager that a surprisingly large number of people think that polygraphs detect lies. An even larger number are probably open to the possibility. If you hook up somebody in that group to a polygraph, you probably rocket their stress levels through the ceiling, which might push them to crack. Behavior under stress is a fascinating thing. Honestly, I had a snarky comment ready for a comment lower-down about the rationale for polygraphs, but I thought about it a bit, and can't, off the top of my head, come up with a faster, cheaper, and safer way to put that kind of stress on a person. Useless against somebody trained -- like, say, an intelligence operative -- but it might not be as stupid as it appears on the surface. |