Lie Detection
7ROM 2YD last Wednesday we heard | a play called "Murder among the Psychologists," not to be confused with psychological murder except for the fact that it occurred at the psychological moment. No, it was a normal murder for the normal profit motive, and fictionally normal since the question "Cui bono?" could be answered in almost as many ways as there were characters. The heroine’s idea of using an association test to discover the Guilty Party was novel, though still normal; but her deductions from the results of her tests were distinctly unorthodox. In fact it was evident that scientific psychology had yielded place to its parent amoeba, woman’s intuition. The unlettered policeman to my mind had the right idea when he regarded with deeper suspicion those suspects who baulked at providing word associations for "Kill" or "Perry" or "Blood" than those who without batting an eyelid obliginely returned "Body." "Professor," and "Red." However the young lady was of course right, and thus the play to my mind goes immediately into the "prejudicial to morale" category. For its effect isto cast doubt upon the basic princinles of the Lie Detector, and once our faith in this is gone what is there left to keep us on the straight and narrow?
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 409, 24 April 1947, Page 10
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211Lie Detection New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 409, 24 April 1947, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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