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When an experimenter want to find out about e.g. what is the hypothesis perceived by the subjects via post-experimental inquiry, if the subjects answered that they did not perceive any hypothesis, it might be helpful to find out if the subjects are speaking the truth or lying out of good intention (so that the experimenter would not know that he/she has wasted time on a potentially useless data point) with lie detecting technique.

Aside from the effectiveness of lie detecting technique, is it allowed by e.g. ethical board?

Aqqqq
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    IRBs in the US might have a lot to say. But how would you do it? Lie detector tests have been proven to be junk science. Individual interviews by trained observers are a subjective but also very expensive. Seems like an impossible task. – Buffy Nov 10 '18 at 21:32
  • Are there new technology which might enable lie detecting? Such as change in brain activation, e.g. EEG? – Aqqqq Nov 10 '18 at 21:41
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    Possibly, but it seems unlikely that you could design a valid experiment. Probably better to design the experiment in such a way that subjects have no incentive to lie. Sometimes that is done just by asking indirect questions rather than direct ones. – Buffy Nov 10 '18 at 21:44
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    Even if the IRB allowed it, there would be the problem of getting informed consent from the subjects. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 10 '18 at 21:57
  • @Buffy How can I find whether IRBs would allow it? I would like to talk about general hypothetical experiments in which lie detecting techniques can be used (not actually conducting such an experiment.) – Aqqqq Nov 17 '18 at 12:40
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    If you are at an American university then it has an IRB. Talk to them. If you are elsewhere, have a US colleague interface for you. You could also talk to any ethicist in a philosophy department anywhere, I think. – Buffy Nov 17 '18 at 12:45

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