Alleged UFO witnesses like Travis Walton and company often undergo polygraph [lie detector] examinations to help gauge the truth of their claims. The value of these tests is often disputed. They are claimed to be as low as 55% accurate, and as high as 98% accurate. However I just ran across this site run by former Israeli intelligence officers who make the following claim:
Using our actual experience as our basis, we found that the lie detector’s accuracy is exceptionally high and typically ranges between 88% and 98% in real-world examinations, as opposed to study environments, with an average of 95% for each test taken.
They state that real-world examinations are far more accurate that in study environments. This seems to be an obvious result since the test really measures one’s stress responses. If the subject isn’t truly stressed, such as in a study environment where they have nothing to lose, then it makes sense that the test would be far less accurate. When the subject is truly threatened to be exposed, the results are far better.
I often think of the Travis Walton case in this context because there were five witnesses to his encounter with a UFO, who passed detector tests while under suspicion of committing murder. That is a situation where the test should be reliable. Better tests such as fMRI and eye tracking may be the ultimate in lie detection.
submitted by /u/Observer_042
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