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Leonard Saxe
Applied social psychologist known for landmark critique of polygraph validity and Jewish community demographic research
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About Leonard Saxe
Leonard Saxe is Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Social Policy at Brandeis University, where he directs the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute. An experimental social psychologist who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976, Saxe served as Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Boston University in the early 1980s before moving to Brandeis. While his polygraph research represents a significant early phase of his career, his current focus is on religious and ethnic identity, particularly issues relevant to the Jewish community.
Saxe's landmark contribution to polygraph science was his 1983 report for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, "Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing", conducted during the Reagan administration's push to expand polygraph use in government security screening. His research argued that polygraph tests, particularly the Control Question Technique (CQT), lack construct validity. He demonstrated that polygraphs do not assess deceptiveness, but rather are situations designed to elicit and assess fear, with correct decisions obtained only when subjects fear detection—making validation impossible. His 1999 study with Gershon Ben-Shakhar on "Admissibility of Polygraph Tests: The Application of Scientific Standards Post-Daubert" examined legal admissibility standards, while his 2001 work with Theodore Cross critiqued the validity of polygraph testing in child sexual abuse cases.
Saxe received the American Psychological Association's prize for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest (Early Career) in 1989 and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry's Marshall Sklare Award in 2010. He has been a Science Fellow for the United States Congress and a Fulbright Professor at Haifa University in Israel. His OTA conclusions on polygraph validity have stood the test of time and have been corroborated by subsequent comprehensive analyses, including a 2002 National Academy of Sciences report. His frequent collaboration with Theodore Cross and Gershon Ben-Shakhar produced influential critiques that shaped scientific consensus on deception detection.
Saxe's work broadly concerns how individuals are influenced by their social environments, encompassing evaluative and policy-focused studies of education, mental health, psychological testing, and identity development. His polygraph research exemplifies his approach to applied social psychology, using rigorous scientific analysis to inform public policy debates. The interdisciplinary nature of his polygraph work—spanning psychology, law, and government policy—demonstrates how psychological research evidence can influence political decisions, though his career has since evolved toward Jewish communal studies and demographic research.
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Researchers who have co-authored studies with Leonard Saxe.
Publications [10]
All peer-reviewed studies by Leonard Saxe in our database.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act: 20 Years Later
Analyses of the 1988 EPPA’s impact after two decades. Banned most private employer polygraph use while maintaining exceptions for government, security, and pharmaceutical industries. [002] 2001 • BOGUS PIPELINE Child Maltreatment, 6, 195–206Polygraph Testing and Sexual Abuse: The Lure of the Magic Lasso
Critical examination of the “bogus pipeline” effect in PCSOT — that the belief in being monitored by polygraph drives increased disclosure regardless of the test’s technical accuracy. [003] 1999 • SCIENTIFIC STANDARDS Psychology, Public Policy, and LawAdmissibility of Polygraph Tests: The Application of Scientific Standards Post-Daubert
Applied behavioral science concepts of reliability and validity to polygraph admissibility. Argued that accuracy rates are unpredictable and called for mutual language between scientists and courts. [004] 1994 Current Directions in Psychological ScienceDetection of Deception: Polygraph and Integrity Tests
Saxe concludes that polygraph tests do not assess deceptiveness but rather measure fear, with no way to determine the cause of anxiety, making validation impossible. Paper-and-pencil integrity tests that replaced… [005] 1991 International Journal of PsychophysiologyScience and CQT polygraph tests: A theoretical critique
The CQT lacks construct validity because it assesses fear rather than deception, making proper validation impossible. While the test may achieve better-than-chance accuracy when subjects fear detection, the inability to… [006] 1991 Integrative Physiological and Behavioral ScienceScience and the CQT polygraph: A theoretical critique
The CQT lacks construct validity and does not assess deceptiveness but rather measures fear and anxiety. Validation is impossible because the source of physiological arousal cannot be determined. [007] 1986 Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, and UtilizationPolicymakers' use of social science research: Technology assessment in the U.S. Congress
The article demonstrated that rigorous technology assessment could successfully influence policy even against powerful interests, as evidenced by the OTA polygraph report's role in leading to Congressional restrictions on workplace… [008] 1985 Transaction/SocietyLiars and lie detection: Umpiring controversy
[009] 1983 Office of Technology Assessment ReportThe scientific validity of polygraph testing
Field studies showed average guilty detection of 86.3% but innocent detection of only 76%, with false positive rates averaging 19.1%. No scientific validity was established for personnel security screening, where… [010] 1983 Advances in applied social psychologyThe perspective of social psychology: Toward a viable model for application
The chapter established that applied psychological procedures must rest on sound theoretical foundations and construct validity, not merely pragmatic demonstrations of effectiveness—principles that would prove devastating when applied to polygraph…Explore all research.
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