Amit Katwala

Exactly. That's a really big kind of flaw in the polygraph. And actually, the polygraph was one of the devices that established the set of standards that we now use to determine whether something is admissible in court or not. It was one of the real test cases where they actually looked at it and they thought, hang on, maybe this isn't really science.

The polygraph machine specifically, which is, I guess, what most people think of now when they think of a lie detector, has its origins in Berkeley, California in the 1920s with the Berkeley Police Department, and a police officer called John Larson. John Larson was a physiologist by training. He wanted to become a criminologist, which is a very new field at that time.

The polygraph machine specifically, which is, I guess, what most people think of now when they think of a lie detector, has its origins in Berkeley, California in the 1920s with the Berkeley Police Department, and a police officer called John Larson. John Larson was a physiologist by training. He wanted to become a criminologist, which is a very new field at that time.

The polygraph machine specifically, which is, I guess, what most people think of now when they think of a lie detector, has its origins in Berkeley, California in the 1920s with the Berkeley Police Department, and a police officer called John Larson. John Larson was a physiologist by training. He wanted to become a criminologist, which is a very new field at that time.

And he took a job in Berkeley because the Berkeley Police Department was led by a kind of visionary police chief called August Vollmer. Vollmer was one of the first...

And he took a job in Berkeley because the Berkeley Police Department was led by a kind of visionary police chief called August Vollmer. Vollmer was one of the first...

And he took a job in Berkeley because the Berkeley Police Department was led by a kind of visionary police chief called August Vollmer. Vollmer was one of the first...

police chiefs in america to try and bring science or evidence to policing so he gave his officers bikes because he kind of thought that that would enable them to cover more ground he gave them radios he started doing crime mapping and all this kind of pioneering stuff

police chiefs in america to try and bring science or evidence to policing so he gave his officers bikes because he kind of thought that that would enable them to cover more ground he gave them radios he started doing crime mapping and all this kind of pioneering stuff

police chiefs in america to try and bring science or evidence to policing so he gave his officers bikes because he kind of thought that that would enable them to cover more ground he gave them radios he started doing crime mapping and all this kind of pioneering stuff

And as part of that, he also started to hire college graduates as police officers, which was a real revolutionary step at the time in the kind of 1910s, 1920s. So John Marston was one of these college cops, and he and Vollmer came across this paper by a guy called William Marston.

And as part of that, he also started to hire college graduates as police officers, which was a real revolutionary step at the time in the kind of 1910s, 1920s. So John Marston was one of these college cops, and he and Vollmer came across this paper by a guy called William Marston.

And as part of that, he also started to hire college graduates as police officers, which was a real revolutionary step at the time in the kind of 1910s, 1920s. So John Marston was one of these college cops, and he and Vollmer came across this paper by a guy called William Marston.

He was a psychologist at Harvard University, and he noticed that when he asked his peers to tell untrue stories, their blood pressure went up. So Larson thought, well, okay, that's an interesting insight, but how can I systematize that? How can I turn that into something objective that can be measured and where the measurements can be recorded so that they can be referred back to you later?

He was a psychologist at Harvard University, and he noticed that when he asked his peers to tell untrue stories, their blood pressure went up. So Larson thought, well, okay, that's an interesting insight, but how can I systematize that? How can I turn that into something objective that can be measured and where the measurements can be recorded so that they can be referred back to you later?

He was a psychologist at Harvard University, and he noticed that when he asked his peers to tell untrue stories, their blood pressure went up. So Larson thought, well, okay, that's an interesting insight, but how can I systematize that? How can I turn that into something objective that can be measured and where the measurements can be recorded so that they can be referred back to you later?

And it's that insight, you know, how can you take this thing that we think we've identified where blood pressure goes up when people lie, how can we turn that into a machine that is objective rather than just based on a single person's observations? So those are the real seeds of the polygraph.

And it's that insight, you know, how can you take this thing that we think we've identified where blood pressure goes up when people lie, how can we turn that into a machine that is objective rather than just based on a single person's observations? So those are the real seeds of the polygraph.

And it's that insight, you know, how can you take this thing that we think we've identified where blood pressure goes up when people lie, how can we turn that into a machine that is objective rather than just based on a single person's observations? So those are the real seeds of the polygraph.

looking at like dormitory thefts at the University of Berkeley. So that was the first case of the polygraph. There was a women's only dorm in Berkeley and a bunch of stuff had gone missing like jewelry and cash and books and things like that. And this was the first case where the Berkeley police department were kind of called in to run polygraph tests on all these young women.