Looking for the Lie

"Looking for the Lie", by Robin Marantz Henig, was originally published in The New York Times Magazine, a weekly distrobution of news that is very highly regarded in the journalism community. Historically it has published articles contributed by very well known writers, and is generally very sophisticated. Its topics range anywhere from politics to sports, science to arts, and travel to business. This being the case, the New York Times Magazine's readers usually tend to be well educated and interested in actively pursuing knowledge on a range of subjects, not all of which relates to them in any way. Stereotypically speaking, this means that most of its readers are middle class with respectable incomes, though this is most certainly not always the case.
This particular article fits squarely into the science category, but maintains The New York Times Magazine's rounded perspective. It is scientific enough to not be targeted at everyone who reads The New York Times, however it is still general enough that it has some relevance to the world that we live in. It is part of the oddly in-depth and intensely intellectual schmorgasboard of information that is The New York Times Magazine. This means that it is targeted at the same audience that the magazine in general is targeted at: middle-aged, employed, intellecual whites who are interested in putting time and energy into learning, even if the subject of the information only has vague relevance to them personally.
This is the really interesting thing about the target audience of this article, and of The New York Times Magazine - the audience really doesn't have much in the way of connection to the content of the article. The majority of the audience of the magazine will never take part in a lie detector test, on either side of the polygraph's metaphorical lens, with the exception of a few who will at some point be arrested for fraud or something similar. The article relies largely on the interest of its readers in learning things about the world around them, in a purely intellectual manner. The world of academe strikes again.
The article has one hook, which is essentially its only non-technical aspect - the second half spends a lot of time discussing the morality of lie detectors. This is something which is also relatively unrelated to the lives of most of the article's audience, however it is still compelling in an intellectual sort of way. The eventuality of lie detectors taking over the world and reading everyone's minds is certainly a frightening one, however the likelihood of this actually happening is so low that its hard to make it seem like even a rational concern. However, it taps into the neverending moral debate on personal liberties, and thus draws people in.
This hook, however, also serves some purpose. The article does a wonderful job of educating its readers as to the reliability of lie detectors, and dispelling the myth that they are always correct, as well as dispelling the myth that they are completely unreliable. The reader should come away from the article with a much better understanding of the current progress of research on the topic of lie detectors. This is the real reason readers read magazines such as this one, especially the science section - to have a better understanding of the world around them, and thus expand their knowledge of life and current events. "Looking for the Lie" should leave the average member of the educated American majority with a feeling of knowledge and worth, along with a renewal of their subscription to the New York Times.