Admissibility of polygraph tests - The application of scientific standardspost-Daubert

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993) modernized the long-standing Frye (1923) precedent and requires cou rts to make scientific judgments. Courts, however, are not well-equipped to parse scientific arguments. To illustrate the difficulty of applying Daube rt, this article focuses on the controversy over admissibility of polygraph test evidence ("lie detectors"). Reliability and validity are discussed in relation to polygraph testing and the Daubert criteria. Although the valid ity of polygraph test results has been examined across many studies, none s atisfy necessary methodological criteria and accuracy rates are unpredictab le. This analysis points to the need for social scientists and courts to de velop a mutually understood language to assess validity claims. Courts must have the ability to weight scientific evidence and, although they need not become amateur scientists, they must become sophisticated consumers.