Lie detectors

The reason I raised the lie detector issue is that the validity of lie detectors is debateable. There's a lot of interest in having a device that detects honesty, but the actual technology is "hit and miss" - works sometimes not others, and impossible to be sure whether actual information or coincidence.

That doesn't stop the belief that some form of lie detector works. But what it relies on is  ANXIETY revealed by changes in pulse, sweating, breathing rate. The notion is that if there is a sudden change in any or all of these the respondent is anxious about telling a lie.

People on the spectrum are vulnerable if the police and other authority people get interested in them. Lack of eye contact or fluctuating eye contact, unusual spken responses, apparent nervous ticks. They attract the police "hello ello ello - what 'ave we here?" type of response.

If the police are going to make wider use of lie detectors then that surely means more incidents where people on the spectrum are wrongly detained (even if, as we keep being told, the police are being trained how to act when someone is autistic). Trouble is even if they do see a card pointing this out they don't seem to quite understand yet that caution, and external advice are needed.

I'm a bit surprised my question raised no directly relevant reaction. I thought it would concern parent groups.

I wonder if people with Aspergers are useful Poker players given that we have unsual manerisms and traits.

These gadgets presumably measure skin conductivity as affected by perspiration, which is one aspect. Polygraphs/lie detectors use pulse rate changes, blood pressure and respiration (breathing rate etc) as well. I guess shocking liar devices could explore some of the issues. I gather this has previously been discussed in WrongPlanet. This device guages body changes that might indicate different levels of anxiety.

Hence on the autistic spectrum our anxiety patterns are different and might give different results from those experienced for neuro-typical subjects.

The police seem to place a lot of confidence in people's eye behaviour. Having "shifty eyes" is suppoosed to imply criminal intention. So a person on the autistic spectrum who has difficulty with eye contact would come under suspicion. Even with greater awareness that there are people with autism out there, I don't think the police have made that much progress.

The lie detector relies on assumptions that certain responses indicate deceit. So my question was, and is still, has anyone investigated whether people on the spectrum might show different responses from NTs, and therefore mistakenly incriminate themselves.

After all I'm sure a few on the spectrum or parents of those on the spectrum have had uncomfortable encounters with the police for behaving oddly. So it is important, surely, to take this seriously.

I've found a kind of a toy that is supossed to simulate a true lie detector. In the review i've found the gadget seems to be a good first approach to the issue.

Here's the link http://mixandbrowse.tk/shocking-liar-game/