Gershon Ben-Shakhar

Gershon Ben-Shakhar is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught in the Department of Psychology from 1981 on, ultimately as a Professor and for a time as the Chair of the Department and the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. He earned his B.A. in Psychology and Statistics (1966), an M.A. in Psychology (1970), and a Ph.D. in Psychology (1975) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, from 1975 to 1976. He also served in several administrative roles including President of the Open University of Israel (2003-2008).

Ben-Shakhar's research fundamentally shaped the scientific understanding of polygraph testing and deception detection. His work focused on cognitive psychophysiology, particularly the role of stimulus novelty and significance in orienting response elicitation and its habituation process and on psychophysiological detection of deception and concealed information. His studies led him to the conclusion that the prevailing method of polygraph ("Lie Detection") tests is flawed and has no scientific validity. He championed the Concealed Information Test (CIT), also known as the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT), as a scientifically sound alternative to the traditional Comparison Question Test (CQT). His influential meta-analyses, including landmark studies in 2001, 2003, and 2014, established the empirical foundation for the CIT's validity using physiological measures such as skin conductance, respiration, heart rate, and P300 brain responses. His efforts in this direction influenced the decision that polygraph tests would not serve as admissible evidence in Israeli criminal courts.

Ben-Shakhar is among the most cited researchers in deception detection science and has been recognized with Israel's highest honors. He received the prestigious EMET Prize in 2011 for his scientific and applied contributions in Psychology, and received the Israel Prize in 2024. He has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, with his 1990 book "Theories and Applications in the Detection of Deception" (co-authored with John J. Furedy) becoming a foundational text in the field. He has collaborated extensively with leading researchers including Eitan Elaad, Bruno Verschuere, Ewout H. Meijer, and William G. Iacono, producing influential work on countermeasures, field validity, and the theoretical mechanisms underlying psychophysiological detection.

Beyond polygraph research, Ben-Shakhar's scholarly contributions span psychological testing, individual differences in cognitive ability and human judgment and decision making. Early in his career, he created a testing unit at the Social Sciences Faculty of Hebrew University to design an aptitude tests battery, which was soon adopted by all faculties and eventually formed the foundation for the unified psychometric test adopted by all universities in Israel. His research on confirmation bias in expert judgment, graphology validity, and orienting responses has influenced broader understanding of cognitive processes, demonstrating how basic psychophysiology research can inform real-world applications in forensic psychology, personnel selection, and legal policy.