Is there any research indicating whether certain ethnic or social groups have an easier time passing polygraph tests?
Since the 1960s, university and government researchers in the U.S. and elsewhere have conducted research on ethnicity and the polygraph. The trend has been that there are no meaningful differences in accuracy, but the research evidence has not eliminated ethnicity entirely as a factor. For example, desert-dwelling Bedouins have shown a dampened responsiveness in one channel but not in another channel. Similar results were found for Icelandic criminals. To date, among the population typically afforded polygraph testing in the U.S., an effect for ethnicity alone has not been shown to be reliable. How do you insure that routine polygraph tests do not probe into purely private matters? Are there any questions that are off limits? What safeguards exist to prevent the release of private information? Agencies provide written guidance to examiners that prohibits examiners from probing issues that are not related to the matter under inquiry. Individual agency policy requires that all questions
Related Questions
- Will departments have the option to allow certain groups of employees to use MyCalPAYS’s Time Management system and other groups to participate in the Inbound Time Interface?
- Is there any research indicating whether certain personality types have an easier time passing polygraph tests?
- Do universities have to set themselves targets to recruit students from certain ethnic groups?
