Myth Busters

In 1988, the United States government passed a law making it illegal for most private employers to use polygraph tests in hiring decisions. The reason was not bureaucratic overcaution. It was that the scientific evidence for polygraph reliability was, and remains, deeply insufficient. Decades later, the same technology is still being used in criminal investigations, national security screenings, and sex offender monitoring programs, while courts in most jurisdictions refuse t

Most people picture a psychopath the same way. Cold. Emotionless. Entirely cut off from the human experience. A person who feels nothing. A person who is, in some fundamental way, not quite human. This is one of the most widespread myths about the brain. And like most myths about the brain, it is not just wrong, it is wrong in ways that matter in court. The myth The popular version of psychopathy, shaped largely by film and television, goes something like this: psychopaths ar

Most people trust their memories. Not just a little. Completely. When someone says "I know what I saw," they mean it. They are not lying. They are not exaggerating. They genuinely believe that what they remember is what happened. That belief is one of the most dangerous ideas in a courtroom. The myth Memory, most people assume, works like a video camera. You experience something. Your brain records it. When you need to recall it, you press play and watch the footage back. The