Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. American inventor John Larson, right, demonstrates the operation of a polygraph at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, ...

In 1921, John Augustus Larson, a medical student and police officer in Berkeley, California invented a machine to help detectives determine if someone was telling the truth - or lying. He called it - ...

Research is identifying alternative methods to the polygraph, but some doubt whether true lie detection is possible.

In Season 8, Episode 10 of "The Simpsons" — an episode parodying the popular 1990s sci-fi thriller "The X-Files" — Homer Simpson is being questioned by two federal agents at a police station. "This is ...

Malfunctions in polygraph equipment operated by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office date to July 1990, according to records released by sheriff's officials Thursday. The records, released at the request ...

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. When President Ronald Reagan’s White House threatened thousands of government ...