Because I work more from home these days, I've caught a greater share of daytime television - and not always for the better. One, the Maury Povich Show, seems to rely heavily on episodes where guests are subjected to lie detector tests. Given the fact that there is no science or reliability behind them, why is the show treating viewers like idiots in this manner?

At Jump the Shark, someone comments:

It jumped when they started doing those stupid lie detector tests. They are believed to be only 60% accurate (thats not really high) and these idiots believe the results! Why do you think they are not used in the courts? Everything is a lie, there is just no hope for these guests that come on this show. I'll watch any other episode, but when those lie detector tests come on, its time to change the channel because you know what to expect. Those episodes are just a waste of an hour.

The lie detector expert I saw was Ralph Barbieri - but what does it take to be an "expert" on a machine that doesn't actually work? Most likely he is an "expert" at reading people's body language, thus being his own lie detector. Trained, experienced people can do a pretty good job at determining when someone isn't telling the truth, but they are of course flawed... I wonder how many people have declared liars despite telling the truth and how many declared truthful who were actually liars?

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