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Full Version: Why Are Cops Around the World Using This Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool?
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https://www.propublica.org/article/why-a...ading-tool

Quote: The creator of Scientific Content Analysis, or SCAN, says the tool can identify deception. Law enforcement has used his method for decades, even though there’s no reliable science behind it. Even the CIA and FBI have bought in.
 
Why is ProPublica referring to this as an "Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool" when it clearly isn't? Media Hyperbollox.

There is some basis for this technique. People change the way that the communicate when they're being deceptive. Law enforcement has been using that for ages simply by interviewing suspects. That technique can be useful, but is prone to individual hunches, gut feelings, and a whole lot of biases. A systematic method for reviewing the data should help reduce those problems. That said, I doubt that it's nearly as accurate as its marketters suggest. This is not the sort of evidence that you should use to convict. It sounds like the cops know that because, as the article states, this evidence doesn't typically show up in court cases.

It's just one more tool with limitations and failures that need to be understood to use it effectively. No mind-reading required.
Honest people have a hard time looking other people in the eye when they're lying to them. I have no problem thinking that this extends to other modes of communication. I do not, however, think it's the clincher, nothing that is "interpreted" should be so honored.
(12-08-2019, 06:11 PM)Paleophyte Wrote: [ -> ]Why is ProPublica referring to this as an "Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool" when it clearly isn't? Media Hyperbollox.

Is there any evidence at all that the technique actually works? So far you haven't presented any.
I'm innocent until proven guilty, and I wouldn't say or write anything without my attorney present. I have a bitch of a time passing a polygraph, even though I'm innocent.
(12-08-2019, 07:10 PM)GenesisNemesis Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-08-2019, 06:11 PM)Paleophyte Wrote: [ -> ]Why is ProPublica referring to this as an "Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool" when it clearly isn't? Media Hyperbollox.

Is there any evidence at all that the technique actually works? So far you haven't presented any.

Good journalism doesn't rely on the reader to go look for the facts. There are a few pages of these studies on Google Scholar, so ProPublica's claim that there's "no reliable science behind it" comes down to a pretty subjective debate on what you decide is reliable. Here are a few results off of the first page:

Syntactic stylometry for deception detection
Deception Detection Expertise
Truth-Default Theory (TDT): A Theory of Human Deception and Deception Detection
Interpersonal deception: V. Accuracy in deception detection

And my objection to there hyperbollox stands regardless. There's no mind-reading here even if it is complete bunk.
I had no problem passing a polygraph test while telling total lies.
I couldn't find any confirmation that law enforcement agencies here in Australia use
Scientific Content Analysis, or SCAN, either at state or federal level. And even if they
did, the results wouldn't be admissible as evidence in any court in Australia, either
at state or federal level. It's just another pseudoscience, like polygraph testing.