The Truth Machine
ISBN: 9781421406510
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Johns Hopkins University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Lie detectors and detection; Lie detectors and detection;

Psychologist Bunn's first book is an account of the social factors and criminological discourse that led to the creation of the lie detector, a device "deeply embedded in the North American psyche." The majority of the book is an expertly constructed narrative detailing the "sustained dialogue between science and the wider culture" in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries that gave rise to the idea of detecting falsehood as a means of identifying criminals. This narrative's extensive cast of characters includes bickering psychologists, charismatic and sensationalist leaders, and a woman whose skepticism of the sexist criminal anthropology of the 19th-century brought about the first instance in which physiological changes were used to detect deception in people. Bunn (coeditor, Psychology in Britain: Historical Essays and Personal Reflections) ultimately argues that the lie detector did not have a proper inventor, but was rather conceived of in the detective fiction of the 1910s. Those looking for a general history of the lie detector or the details of its function will be disappointed, but those interested in a history of American society's relationship with truth, deception, and its detection will be enlightened. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Geoffrey C. Bunn is a senior lecturer in psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and coeditor of Psychology in Britain: Historical Essays and Personal Reflections .


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