The Wire | The Machine Tells The Tale

> However, the power in the lie detector comes from its name - "The Lie Detector" - and the common belief that it actually works. Ha. It reminds me of this hilarious video clip ( [this video] ) from The Wire , S5E01, which Detective William "Bunk" Moreland interrogated DeShawn and made him believe the office copy machine was a lie detector. This plot itself was based on an false urban legend. > [...] they are also not admissible in court, as the law understands that they don't actually work. But in an interrogation process [...] it is a good arrow in the quiver. I think the first things come to my mind is: what types of psychological tricks are and aren't allowed in an interrogation process? Is it permissible to use a nonworking "lie detector" as an interrogation technique? What are the potential abuses of this trick, etc? These are some interesting things that can be argued and debated. I don't have background knowledge any of these subjects I mentioned so I won't start a debate, other interesting may want to do so. Anyway, interesting perspective. I appreciate your comment, which moved the question from the first layer: "does a polygraph work and whether we should use it", to the next layer: "a polygraph doesn't work, but should we use it anyway?"