Unpicking The Enduring Appeal Of Lie Detector Tests On Reality TV

Ahh the infamous Love Island lie detector test. Often the height of the series, the challenge sees the men (not the women - what's with that?) hooked up to a series of monitors and asked questions written out by their partners (or so we are told) to determine whether they are being 100% honest in their couple. Last night, it saw four of the girls end up in tears and this series’ favourite couple, Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, fall-out in what was their first big argument of the season.

Previous seasons have seen some of the men spectacularly fail their lie detectors and yet, SHOCK HORROR, still be with their partners years later - case in point Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland who are, as we speak, engaged to be married. However, this year’s contestants were of course drawn in by the drama of it all, with Dani and Jack ending the show in a huge row after he ‘lied’ when answering ‘no’ to the question: ‘could you be tempted by other girls outside the villa?’

Whether lie detector tests are accurate is, of course, a notoriously contentious issue. So, throw in a handful of producers, whose literal job is to create drama for our entertainment, and lie detector tests specifically used on reality TV are a whole other ball game.

We’ve seen the lie detector brought into reality TV for years, the calling card of The Jeremy Kyle show, the polygraph test has had entire programmes dedicated to it (Channel 4’s The Lie Detective, Fox’s The Moment of Truth - hosted by none other than Mark Walberg - and the many versions of Lie Detector in the US), with it also being a staple of various US and UK tabloid talk shows from Maury to The Trisha Goddard Show.

In fact, the lie detector is such a sure-fire production of entertainment that it even sparked a YouTube challenge trend with almost every notable vlogger jumping on the bandwagon for guaranteed views. It seems that, as much as we are all cynical about the accuracy of lie detectors, they’re a failsafe tool of entertainment.

In reality, they’re about as accurate as assuming someone is lying because they look at the ceiling. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, there is ‘no evidence that any pattern of physiological reactions is unique to deception’.

Basically, it doesn’t matter how much your heart rate or blood pressure increases, how much you sweat or how much electricity your skin conducts when asked certain questions (as polygraph tests monitor) there’s just no way to prove whether you’re lying or not. Because, and this is the kicker, we can’t assume that lying causes everyone stress. Some of us might have a conscience and become anxious when telling a lie, but others cough Alex cough, seem to deceive as easily as breathing.

And while the American Polygraph Association asserts that lie detectors have an 87% accuracy rate, it’s highly debatable whether Love Island would actually use a test 'conducted and interpreted in compliance with documented and validated procedure', as the organisation recommends. Even high-tech, approved tests aren’t trusted enough to be valid in UK courts, never mind the second-hand eBay ones that reality TV shows are most likely to use.

None of this is news to Love Island viewers of course, who called out the test as being ‘rigged’ on social media. Given that this season has seen producers make a series of questionable decisions in pursuit of ‘good TV’, fans are quick to question just how real this show has become.

Yet, despite knowing that lie detectors on reality TV are never that trustworthy, everyone was still on tenterhooks waiting for this episode to air. It seems that after what can only be described as the dullest season of Love Island yet, we were all actually craving some drama whether we knew it was fake or not. Because, after all, we've invested one hour of our precious evenings, six days of every week for five weeks straight into this show. And honestly, the sad truth is, it's just not been worth it.

Whether you're a Love Island fanatic who unashamedly looks forward to the show every year, or it's your guilty pleasure that you justify with the producers' ability to produce a hot take for the water-cooler after every episode, it's hard to feel like this season has been worth the time-heavy investment.

It's not just the snore factor, it's the controversial production that has seen this years storylines go from harmless fun to worryingly contrived. The re-shot scenes, biased editing and emotional manipulation has taken the show into faux-reality that viewers don't trust. So has the damage been done? While most of us eagerly await to see who wins in the season finale just so we can get back to living our normal lives, what's next for Love Island?

Could it come back next year with a rebranded, less problematic season? We can only hope, because for a good few years there, Love Island really was the (secret) highlight of our Summer...

Click through to find out how to keep up with the Love Island contestants once they leave the villa...