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Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
A truth drug (or truth serum) is a drug used for the purposes of obtaining accurate information from an unwilling subject, most often by a police, intelligence, or military organization on a prisoner. Effective truth drugs are mostly fictional, though some drugs have been shown to be effective in lowering the resistance (but sometimes also reliability) of an interrogated person.
Real-world use
Substances
Drugs used for this purpose have included ethanol, scopolamine, and the anaesthetic induction agent sodium thiopental (more commonly known as sodium pentothal); all sedatives that interfere particularly with judgment and higher cognitive function. While grain alcohol (ethanol) is used for this purpose by many individuals in a more innocent sense, it is used by professionals as well. A book by a former Soviet KGB officer based in Washington details the use of near-pure ethanol to verify that a Soviet agent was not compromised by U.S. counterintelligence services.[1]
Reliability
Information obtained by publicly-disclosed truth drugs has been shown to be highly unreliable, with subjects apparently freely mixing fact and fantasy. Much of the claimed effect relies on the belief of the subject that they cannot tell a lie while under the influence of the drug.
In fiction
Fictional accounts of intelligence interrogation give truth drugs near magical abilities, ranging from instant effects to near-lucid (but totally truthful) speech on part of the subject. Many fictional stories also toy with the distinction between what the person under the influence of the truth drug believes is true and what is really true.
In the fourth novel of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a magical truth serum called Veritaserum is used on Barty Crouch who has been masquerading as Mad Eye Moody, to reveal the truth of his work. The serum is shown as 100% effective with complete incapacity to lie.
In the book Artemis Fowl. Artemis lies to the LEPRecon officer Holly Short, saying he had injected her with sodium pentothal in order to learn the L.E.P.'s tactics.
In the film Johnny English, Rowan Atkinson uses a hypodermic needle filled with truth serum disguised in a ring. The serum is rather effective, with the victim even volunteering additional information.
In the film True Lies, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is injected with truth serum; his wife takes advantage of this and asks him some questions about his job as a government counter-terrorist agent.
In Thomas Pynchon's book Gravity's Rainbow, the chemical sodium amytal is used as a truth serum.
In the film The Good Shepherd, CIA interrogators use a vial filled with LSD in an attempt to determine the validity of information a Soviet defector provided the Agency. LSD, at the time that the film is set, was being experimented with by various organizations to determine its effectiveness as a truth serum. These kind of test were carried forward under other studies, the most encompassing study being the Agency's Project MKULTRA.
In the film Meet the Fockers, Jack has a strong distrust of Greg and injects him with Sodium Pentothal, also known as Sodium Thiopental.
In the book Kallocain by Karin Boye, a truth drug called Kallocain that forces the user to confess their most hidden and private thoughts and feelings. People can be questioned under it and must give an answer they feel is truthful. The liquid is pale green and makes one feel safe.
References
- ↑ Washington station: my life as a KGB spy in America - Shvets, Yuri B; Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994
See also
External links
- Some Believe 'Truth Serums' Will Come Back - Brown, David; The Washington Post, Monday 20 November 2006; page A08
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