Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/07/confirmation-bias.html
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If applicants with a certain intelligence level were hired onto the force, they might call such methods into question. This is why we can’t have nice things.
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Unexpected truth in advertising. Polygraphs are also literal junk science that works on confirmation bias. Even without taking an expensive course, I know to treat this statement as a confession.
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My trained lab lab rat/mice hybrids and myself have analyzed this article about Avinoam Sapir and have concluded beyond on any scientific reproach he is what ever he says anyone else is .because part of our in depth analysis include applying in conjunction the three unbreakable scientific theorems of “thats the pot calling the kettle black” “every fox smells it’s own hole” and “iknow you are you are but what am I”
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People are irresistibly drawn to easy answers to hard problems, especially if it involves secret knowledge that makes them “special” and better than everyone else. The human ego is a powerful force.
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If you think this is the only junk science that puts/keeps people in jail/prison, you are badly mistaken.
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cops and spooks around the world are using this…Give idiots a chance to do something idiotic and they will not fail to do so
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So the only difference between this and water-witching is that the investigators hold a piece of paper instead of a forked stick? Sounds legit to me.
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Amazing! It’s like someone found a way to combine a service pistol with a dowsing rod.
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More from their website:
REASON Command Center is the perfect tool for writing SCAN reports! With REASON Command Center, writing a SCAN report is as easy as clicking on a drop-down menu.
REASON Command Center (REport Automated SOlution Notes) is a collection of over 650 report comments (10% more than the original REASON diskette), named by topic and arranged in an easy-to-use directory tree on a CD ROM. With a few mouse clicks, the SCAN analyst can “zero in” on the appropriate comments for the situation, preview the comments and include them in the SCAN report being prepared.
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If SCAN works, why do they need to search my phone?
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the real danger is any marginally competent criminal who understands these systems can manipulate the police easily. Or is that the built in safety net?
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I can imagine a good defense counsel asking a cop on the witness stand, “Are the words in this report yours, or did you select from someone else’s list of responses? If so, how can you say that this was a thorough investigation and assessment that charged my client?
Your Honor, I request this witnesses’ testimony be disallowed on the basis of hearsay and incompetence.”
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I think the real danger is that they’ll use this quackery to fixate on someone who can’t afford a lawyer, ignoring real evidence, and then pressure them into a plea bargain.
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“ SCAM (Scientific Content Amalysis) is a lie-detecting method invented by Avinoam Sapir,”
Fixed that for you…
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I’ve always relied on a tried and trusted method of telling when politicians lie - are their lips moving? If yes, then they’re lying.
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Had to take a lie detector test for my first job, a bag boy in a grocery store. Now, I am practically phobic about having my blood pressure taken. The cuff just gives me the willies. The test involves having the cuff on for an extended period. So basically I was soon practically hallucinating with fear. But I realized I could say anything, anything at all and it wouldn’t register.So I did. Passed the test, of course.
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Par for the course, really. There’s a long tradition, maintained by American police, of using methods known to not work (e.g. witness identification techniques known to create false positives, abandoned by the rest of the developed world’s police forces, are still used in the US). The US has a real problem with (a lack of) evidence-based police practices, and this is just another data point, I’m afraid.
My feeling is that it’s more than ignorance (though this is also true, given the lack of standards in US policing). Police also love this shit because it allows them wide latitude to let their prejudices come into play in determining outcomes - that’s more important to them than getting things right.
Not so much. The way these things often end up working in practice is cops get “evidence” that confirms whatever they wanted to believe in the first place. So yeah, a criminal of the “right” skin color (etc) might be able to use this in their favor, but someone with the “wrong” color (culture/religion/sexual orientation, etc.) gets screwed regardless of their innocence in the real world.
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edit: I re-watched Blade Runner after watching BR 2049 about three times, and I think the retconned thing where Rachel is fertile is a good fit for the original movie. You can really see Tyrell’s enthusiasm in this scene. He really, seriously, wants Rick Deckard to know exactly how human Rachel is, right to the point of giving her Deckard’s home address.
Or maybe – just hear me out here – James Comey was a high-ranking Law Enforcement official who not only took courses in notetaking, but took seriously the idea that small details are important, especially when giving testimony. Maybe he feels it’s important to know whether someone came in through the East door or the South door, because some clever lawyer might say “There are two doors. Which one did my client enter through?” and if you say “I don’t remember,” they will cast all of your testimony into doubt. All this shit is is recooked Freudianism. No wonder it stinks.
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