Word: lie-detector
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...tests has become a growth industry. Restaurant chains and retail stores-both notorious targets for petty, in-house thieves-are known to be heavy users of the polygraph. Officials of Zale Corp., a Dallas-based jewelry chain, admit that they ask a large number of new employees to take lie-detector tests before they are formally hired. The Burger King and McDonald's hamburger chains also have used the polygraph on some employees, though McDonald's last month ended the practice at its California outlets under pressure from the state labor commissioner. Indeed, polygraphers figure that as many...
...past five years, to 1,200. Many operate one-machine offices, but a few companies, like Dale System Inc. of Garden City, N.Y., and Management Safeguards Inc. of Manhattan, have offices in a number of cities. Lincoln M. Zohn Inc. of Manhattan, probably the largest U.S. lie-detector firm, recorded sales of $1.5 million last year, double those of 1969, and has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a public stock offering...
...polygraph supposedly identifies false answers by measuring involuntary changes in blood pressure, breathing and galvanic skin response, a process that involves sweating. The changes purportedly occur under the emotional stress of lying. But however sensitive it is, the machine is not infallible. Results of lie-detector tests normally are not admitted as evidence in court cases because they are not considered reliable enough. A coolly determined person can sometimes hoodwink the machine, as TIME Reporter-Researcher Eileen Shields did in a polygraph test at Dale System headquarters. By trying to remain calm and control her physical responses, she successfully convinced...
Guilty. Reliability aside, polygraph opponents argue that forcing employees to take lie-detector tests is unfair and degrading. Next month, the American Civil Liberties Union will publish a report contending that employee testing by polygraphy violates the constitutional principle that a citizen is presumed innocent until proven guilty and constitutes "an illegal search and seizure of the subject's thoughts, attitudes and beliefs." Says John Shattuck, a co-author of the report: "It is logically impossible to determine whether polygraph testing at a particular company is voluntary or a condition of employment, so all pre-employment use should...
Unions representing employees of some retail chains, including locals at E.J. Korvette and Grand Union, have won contract provisions severely limiting lie-detector tests. A few stores, like New York's Bonwit Teller, have abandoned tests on sales personnel because of worker opposition. And many executives, whether out of consideration for good employee relations or philosophical conviction, will have nothing to do with the machine...