Question

Austin is interested in working for an intelligence branch of the government. A polygraph test is part of the interview

process. Though Austin intends to be honest, he is worried that the polygraph will say he is lying when he is not.
Austin's friend, Gabe, assures Austin that polygraph tests are infallible. Is Gabe right?

Answer 1

Gabe is wrong in concluding that the polygraph tests are infallible. Even though the polygraph machine is a man-made machine, there is a small margin of error factored into it.

This error could be caused as a result of the anxiety of the test taker, the heart beat rate, the blood pressure etc which would lead to the answers provided by the person to be flagged as false despite being true.

In most cases, the test result will be declared inconclusive if there was an error in the readings.

Step-by-step explanation: