BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 18 – The Machine That Knew Too Much: The Lie Detector and the Discursive Production of Truth

Chapter Summary

This chapter explores the lie detector as a case study in the history of applied psychology, critically examining how it emerged as a cultural and scientific artefact in the United States during the period prior to the start of the Second World War. Rather than asking whether the polygraph ‘really works’, the chapter applies the tool for critical thinking of discourse analysis to investigate how the lie detector came to signify truth, objectivity, and guilt. Through an exploration of historical context, key individuals, and the socio-technical development of the polygraph, students are introduced to the ways in which psychological tools are shaped by, and help shape, the discourses of science, justice, and emotion. Focusing on the competing visions of William Moulton Marston and Leonarde Keeler, the chapter uncovers the ideological contradictions embedded in early lie detection discourse, including the tension between mechanical objectivity and human interpretation. It analyses the subject positions (expert, suspect, machine), interpretative repertoires (truth machine versus performance), and ideological dilemmas (science versus spectacle) that structure the polygraph’s authority. The chapter concludes by showing how the lie detector functioned as a technology of power: as a tool of police discipline, therapeutic intimacy, and spectacular cultural performance. Ultimately, the polygraph is revealed to be not merely a machine but a discourse: it was a way of thinking, seeing, and acting that reshaped ideas about truth, guilt, and psychological expertise. By applying discourse analysis, students are invited to question how psychological knowledge is produced, validated, and operation-alised in both science and society.

Chapter 18 – Quiz

  • Chapter 18 – Flashcards

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  • Chapter 18 – Key Readings

    Alder, K. (2002). A social history of untruth: Lie detection and trust in twentieth-century America, Representations, 80(1), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2002.80.1.1

    Alder, K. (2007). The lie detectors: The history of an American obsession. New York: Free Press.

    Balmer, A.S. & Sandland, R. (2012). Making monsters: The polygraph, the plethysmograph, and other practices for the performance of abnormal sexuality.  Journal of Law and Society, 39(4), 593-615. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00601.x

    Balmer, A.S. (2018). Lie detection and the law: Torture, technology and truth. Routledge.

    Bunn, G. C. (2007). Spectacular science: The lie detector’s ambivalent powers. History of Psychology, 10(2), 156–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/1093-4510.10.2.156

    Bunn, G. C. (2012). The truth machine: A social history of the lie detector. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Bunn, G. C. (2019). ‘Supposing that truth is a woman, what then?’: The lie detector, the love machine, and the logic of fantasy. History of the Human Sciences, 32(5), 135-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695119867022

    Derksen, M. (2012). Control and resistance in the psychology of lying. Theory & Psychology, 22(2), 196-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354311427487

    Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). New York: Pantheon.

    Littlefield, M. M. (2011). The lying brain: Lie detection in science and science fiction. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Scott, P., & von Unger, H. (2021). Discourses on im/migrants, ethnic minorities, and infectious disease: Fifty years of tuberculosis reporting in the United Kingdom. History of the Human Sciences, 35(1), 189-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951211015886

    Sims-Schouten, W., Riley, S. C. E., & Willig, C. (2007). Critical realism in discourse analysis: A presentation of a systematic method of analysis using women’s talk of motherhood, childcare and female employment as an example. Theory & Psychology, 17(1), 101-124. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354307073153

    Viner, R. (1996), Melanie Klein and Anna Freud: The discourse of the early dispute. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 32(1), 4-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6696(199601)32:1<4::AID-JHBS1>3.0.CO;2-Y

  • Chapter 18 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did the lie detector reflect the changing understanding of criminality in early 20th century America? 
    2. In what ways did William Moulton Marston and Leonarde Keeler represent different visions of psychological expertise? 
    3. How does discourse analysis help us understand the lie detector not as a neutral device, but as a cultural artefact? 
    4. What forms of power operated through the use and popularisation of the lie detector, and how were these legitimised? 
    5. What does the history of the lie detector reveal about the relationship between psychology, science, and public trust?

  • Chapter 18 – Weblinks

    Detecting Lies – Smithsonian Magazine (Academic Article)

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/detecting-lies-147115783

    This article discusses various attempts to create a true lie detector machine, giving students the ability to engage with the concept of such a machine in an accessible way and providing context to how this goal was developed through the various psychological work being undertaken during the early development of the ideas.

    The Lie of the Polygraph (YouTube Lecture)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYYQT4sqVgs

    This 59-minute YouTube video critically evaluates the efficacy of the polygraph machine in legitimately identifying lies, giving students the opportunity to engage critically with the concepts presented in the chapter.

    The Truth About the Polygraph | Dr. Tuvya Amsel | TEDxWhiteCity

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TOM7JL2_y8

    This 8-minute YouTube lecture presents information on what a polygraph machine actually does, and how this tool is employed in various practical settings, presented by Dr. Tuvya Amsel.

    ORCID: Geoff Bunn – Author Page (Educational Resource)

    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1856-5432

    This webpage allows for tracing of the academic profile of Dr. Geoffery Bunn, including work on the history of psychology, discourse in the field and scientific methods in a multitude of settings.

    PhilPapers: Discourse Analysis in Psychology

    https://philpapers.org

    This webpage contains an extremely extensive database of academic philosophical works, including many pieces on critical and post-structuralist approaches to discourse and psychology.