The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession

For centuries, people searched in vain for a way to unmask liars, seeking clues in blushing cheeks, shifty eyes, and curling toes...all the body's outward signs. But not until the 1920s did a cop with a Ph.D. team up with an entrepreneurial high school student from Berkeley, California and claim to have invented a foolproof machine that peered directly into the human heart. In a few short years their polygraph had transformed police work, seized headlines, solved sensational murders, and enthralled the nation. In Chicago, the capital of American vice, the two men wielded their device to clean up corruption, reform the police, and probe the minds of infamous killers. Before long the lie detector had become the nation's "mechanical conscience," searching for honesty on Main Street, in Hollywood, and even within Washington, D.C. Husbands and wives tested each other's fidelity. Corporations tested their employees' honesty. Movie studios and advertisers tested their audiences' responses. Eventually, thousands of government employees were tested for their loyalty and "morals" -- for lack of which many lost their jobs.

Yet the machine was flawed. It often was used to accuse the wrong person. It could easily be beaten by those who knew how. Repeatedly it has been applied as an instrument of psychological torture, with the goal of extracting confessions. And its creators paid a commensurate price. One went mad trying to destroy the Frankenstein's monster he had created. The other became consumed by mistrust: jealous of his cheating wife, contemptuous of his former mentor, and driven to an early death. The only happy man among the machine's champions was the eccentric psychologist who went on to achieve glory as the creator of Wonder Woman.

Yet this deceptive device took America -- and only America -- by storm. Today, the CIA still administers polygraphs to its employees. Accused celebrities loudly trumpet its clean bill of truth. And the U.S. government, as part of its new "war on terror," is currently exploring forms of lie detection that reach directly into the brain. Apparently, America still dreams of a technology that will render human beings transparent.

The Lie Detectors is the entertaining and thought-provoking story of that American obsession.

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The truth, so help me . . . , 2008-04-25
The "lie detector" is an American invention of the 20th century that measures the physical changes (blood pressure, sweat, hear rate) that are said to correspond to willful deception--lies. However, there are serious scientific and philosophical questions about whether willful deception can be unequivocally linked to specific bodily reactions, and about whether a device of this or any (known) scientific type can accurately measure and predict or proscribe results based on physical changes.

Alder's book covers these theoretical issues, as well as providing an interesting history of the three men most instrumental to the lie detector technology: John Larson, Leonarde Keeler, and William Marston, who went on to write the Wonder Woman comics with his wife--mother of two of his children--and his live-in mistress--mother of his other two children! As distant as that may seem from normalcy, amazingly enough, despite these twists or because of them, he handled the notoriety and the stresses of the position better than either Larson or Keeler.

Alder spends considerable time placing the device in America's history ("red scares", Cold Wars) and culture (violent crime, tabloid journalism), and points out that

--despite the occasional outburst of emphasis on lie detection (after 9/11, for example), legal and scientific opinions still are split and mostly against it, and

--reliance on the device in any application is almost completely isolated to the US.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

An Interesting History, 2007-11-26
This book recounts the story of the lie detector, from its early development and use in the early twentieth century up to the present. However, the main focus is on the first half of the twentieth century and on the two individuals who developed it and used it the most. Although the sociological, psychological, philosophical and legal aspects of the use of the lie detector are discussed at length, there are very few details on the technical and scientific sides. I would have appreciated perhaps a few paragraphs detailing the device's technical aspects, the charts produced and their meaning and at least some hard statistical data on the device's performance. On this last point, the author does point out that success rate is strongly dependent on the operator and on the interrogation techniques; consequently, hard statistical data may be more complicated to come by, although some quasi-qualitative and conflicting figures are provided throughout the text. I found the writing style to be quite scholarly and most of it quite engaging, although some of the philosophical and sociological discussions were less so. Overall, I found the book to be quite interesting and, indeed, fascinating in many sections. This book would likely be of most interest to sociology and psychology buffs, as well as those interested in the workings of the legal system.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Bluff, Fraud, or Viable Investigation Device?, 2007-07-06
Let me start by admitting that this book validates my preconceptions about the polygraph's unreliablity. There are numerous studies showing that the polygraph does not reliabily detect lies, yet the American government, police investigators, and employers spend millions of dollars using it -- perhaps engendering a false sense of security that it provides meaningful protection from criminals, spies, and thieves.

Alder discusses the polygraph's origins including the complex relationship between John Larson, its inventor (a police officer with a Ph.D. in physiology, August Vollmer (police chief and reformer), and Leonarde Keeler (a relentless self-promoter who popularized the device). He also discusses Keeler's wife, one of the first female forensic specialists and later a private detective.

As discussed in the book, the polygraph has long been excluded from American courtrooms, but it it a favorite tool of many police investigators and can have a profound affect on which suspects are prosecuted and on plea agreements. The polygraph's use by employers, security agencies, and for various political purposes is also discussed, with concerns raised about the misuse of the device for political grandstanding and coercion.

Alder mentions the variety of studies and tests that show that the polygraph does not work reliablity as a lie detector, although it can be a powerful bluff to elicit confessions (true and false). He also mentions problems with various other techniques and questions the underlying theory that lies cause measurable physical reactions. However, a reader interested in the scientific criticism of the lie detector and other methods would be better served by reading the sources in Alder's endnotes.

There's a wealth of good material about 1920-40s policing, particularly in Chicago, and about the origins of forensics in Chicago with a cameo by Calvin Goddard, among others.


7 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

What should have been an interesting science history is marred by left-wing ideology, 2007-04-15
Had Ken Alder stopped his history of the "lie detector" at about page 178, this book would have been an interesting, if not valuable, contribution to popular science history. Up to that point, Alder profiled John Larson and Leonarde Keeler, the two men most responsible for the invention of the modern version of the device. The two men were destined to become enemies as Larson tried to establish mechanized lie detection as a true scientific undertaking while Keeler veered more toward hucksterism.

The underlying story is humankind's eternal search for a means of determining who is telling the truth and who is not. Alder provides a brief history of the progression of this quest through torture to the jury trial to purported science.

The histories of Larson and Keeler and their interplay with characters like legendary police chief August Vollmer, the popular press, the courts, corrupt police departments and politicians as these men promoted the lie detector is fascinating and well worth reading.

Alder justifiably spends a lot of time pointing out the deficiencies of the lie detector while contrasting it with the slowly growing belief, by the press at first, and then the public that this highly dubious science worked. That too is interesting.

Intermittently, Alder informs us of the personal lives of Larson and Keeler. Keeler in love with his own publicity while he slips into alcoholism. Larson becoming increasingly addled while searching for the truth. Along the way we are introduced to characters like William Moulton Marston who had his own lie dectection system to sell --- and lived harmoniously with two women and went on to create the Wonder Woman comic book character.

At about the two-thirds point of the book, Alder switches gears from historian of the lie detector to sociologist and historian of American culture and politics. He slips into the role of left-wing idelogue and essentially ruins the book.

There is to me a telling error at page 169 where Alder cites the Hawthorne experiments as having taken place at General Electric. These famous experiments took place at the Hawthorne works of Western Electric. The studies were paid for by General Electric.

This sloppy scholarship becomes increasingly frequent throughout the remainder of the book. Alder seems intent --- if not obsessed --- with depicting a peculiarly American belief in the effiacy of mechanical lie detectors as being strictly a product of "conservative" political beliefs.

Alder's campaign, frankly, is creepy.

He spends a chapter on the efforts of anti-Communists to uncover possible subversives in the government, treating it as groundless. Alder focuses on Sen. McCarthy. But his vision is highly selective in that Alder leaves out all the Democrats of the time, including future President John F. Kennedy who also believed that the federal government was infiltrated by Communists who did not have the best interests of the nation at heart. Alder completely ignores the evidence produced by the Venona Project which clearly established the existence of Communists in high levels of the federal government. While the increasingly widespread use of the lie detector to root out subversives during this period was based on bad or non-existent science, Alder simply ignores the reality that many high placed Americans had reason to worry about the nation's security. Alder pretends that these fears had no basis in fact.

Alder spends many pages on applying 2007 morality to late 1940/early 1950s reality: the intensive effort to flush out homosexuals from government jobs. That was then: this is now. The "lavender scare" as he dubs it might have been worth a paragraph or two, but not several pages.

He goes on to note that lie detectors were banned from workplace use in 22 states, but fails to note the irony in his acknowledgement that these were the most heavily unionized states in the nation - and that this took place at a time when union leadership was being decimated for corrupt practices.

Alder puts "war in terror" in scare quotes and refers to people who blow up, behead and otherwise murder as "jihadists". The word terrorist is nowhere to be found. Alder also dabbles in --- and distorts --- contemporary history to reflect current left-wing memes.

Overall, Alder reveals himself as a left-wing political idelogue, not an objective historian.

In sum, Alder's chronological history of the lie detector in America is informative as light popular science history. His attempt at social history is a complete failure because he is blinded by his political biases. I would advise that if you have an interest in how a scientifically invalid technique such as the lie detector gained prominence in America, that you read the first half of this book. Also, I suggest you borrow it from the library or get it when it is remaindered: it's not worth the current price since only half of it is readable.

Jerry



13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

This Book is Fascinating...I Wouldn't Lie to You, 2007-04-11
"The Lie Detectors" is the historical story of both the "lie detector" machine and the men who invented, researched and promoted the use of the machine. The men (and women) behind the machine were, in many ways, much more interesting than the machine itself, which has changed little since its invention.

Covered by the book are how the machine works, why it doesn't really work, why there was fighting between different factions involved with it's development and why the courts have not allowed the machine to be used in criminal cases. Also included are some of the high profile cases where the machine was used and how the machine either helped or hindered those cases.

The book is an interesting read, although it is a little "dense" in some areas. It is heavily researched and documented, and as well written as any historical work of its kind can be. If you are looking for a book primarily about the plain mechanics and operation of the machine, look elsewhere. If, however, you want to read the entire story behind the machine then this book is for you.

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