{"id":199,"date":"2021-07-20T17:58:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/?p=199"},"modified":"2021-07-20T17:58:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:58:21","slug":"lie-detection-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2021\/07\/20\/lie-detection-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Lie Detection Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lie detectors are not infallible, but people who believe<\/em> they are infallible may be more likely than non-believers to confess to their crimes. In one small town police station which had no polygraph, a kitchen colander was placed on a burglary suspect’s head and attached by wires to a copy machine on which there was a sheet of paper that read “He’s lying!” When he denied committing the burglary, an officer pressed the “copy button,” and when the “He’s lying!” paper emerged, the suspect confessed.\n<\/p>\n

[Source: Shepherd, C., Kohut, J. J., & Sweet, R. (1989). News of the weird<\/em>. New York: New American Library.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lie detectors are not infallible, but people who believe they are infallible may be more likely than non-believers to confess to their crimes. In one small town police station which had no polygraph, a kitchen colander was placed on a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m-and-e"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcjttF-3d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":146,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2020\/09\/13\/competency-to-stand-trial\/","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":0},"title":"Competency to Stand Trial","author":"dbernstein","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a recent example in which the process of determining a criminal suspect's competency to stand trial took so long that the time he spent in jail awaiting trial exceeded the length of his ultimate prison sentence. It also exemplifies the fact that clinical judgments about competency and sanity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Psychological Disorders"","block_context":{"text":"Psychological Disorders","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/disorders\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2021\/07\/20\/human-olfaction-is-underappreciated\/","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":1},"title":"Human Olfaction is Underappreciated","author":"dbernstein","date":"July 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Although commonly regarded as a less important sense, human olfaction has been underestimated. Humans can detect some odors better than other animals can, have relatively large olfactory bulbs (which seems to be important in olfactory ability) and the number of olfactory neurons does not vary as much across species as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sensation and Perception"","block_context":{"text":"Sensation and Perception","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/s-and-p\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2020\/09\/14\/self-fulfilling-prophesies\/","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":2},"title":"Self-Fulfilling Prophesies","author":"dbernstein","date":"September 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In an experiment, men and women in adjoining rooms participated in \"get acquainted\" conversations over an intercom system. Before the conversations took place, the men were shown a photograph of the woman who was supposedly their conversation partner. Some saw a photo of an obese woman while others saw a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social Psychology"","block_context":{"text":"Social Psychology","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/social\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":387,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2026\/04\/23\/ignore-effect-size-at-your-peril\/","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":3},"title":"Ignore Effect Size at Your Peril","author":"dbernstein","date":"April 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"This article in The Economist entitled \u201cRemoving Phones from Classrooms Improves Academic Performance\u201d (https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5370727) has been cited by Chris Ferguson as an example of how ignoring effect sizes can lead to false conclusions. Here is the abstract of the paper, followed by Ferguson\u2019s critique: Widespread smartphone bans are being implemented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Research Methods & Statistics"","block_context":{"text":"Research Methods & Statistics","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/rmstats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/15\/cognitive-bias-about-danger\/","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":4},"title":"Cognitive Bias about Danger","author":"dbernstein","date":"May 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Mass Formation\" is an idea proposed by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet. He gained worldwide recognition toward the end of 2021 when he presented the concept as an explanation for some irrational behavior with regard to the COVID pandemic and its countermeasures.\u00a0 \"In the beginning of the Corona crisis, back in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Thinking and Cognitive Abilities"","block_context":{"text":"Thinking and Cognitive Abilities","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/tca\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}