system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Despite it being painfully obvious lie detectors are not accurate, why are they still used?
gpt
They're mostly *not* used.  Polygraph results are not admissible as evidence in most courts.  The situations where they're most used are:

1. Pre-employment interviews with some companies for very sensitive positions, as more of a "security theater" than an actual useful practice.

2. People accused of a crime hiring a company themselves to get a polygraph result indicating innocence, in order to influence public opinion.  

3. Entertainment, like on some daytime-TV talk shows (the Maury Povich show comes to mind).