Further from the author's words:
The ability to establish contact with a person is what distinguishes a good specialist in the field of social engineering. In this article, we will talk about elicitation – a powerful set of techniques that psychotherapists, representatives of special services, doctors and even lawyers use to influence people's behavior.
Let's start with the basics
What is elimination? This is the ability to convince a person to come to certain conclusions in a logical way or to force them to form these conclusions independently. The term can also refer to actions designed to encourage an individual to engage in certain behaviors or behaviors. For example, in movies, we often hear the phrase "it was very difficult to get a statement out of him." The National Security Agency's training materials define this technique as " covertly and subtly extracting information during a normal conversation."
The advantage of this technique is that the subject is often unaware of the fact of manipulation. The technique works well for several reasons:
Elicitation goals
As the definition implies, elimination is used to force a person to act or think in a certain way. To do this, a specialist in social engineering uses a series of well-structured questions. The more information he gets, the more successful his attack will be. Remember how often we have short, useless conversations with random people – at lunch, in line at the store, etc. This is why elimination is so dangerous – because you can be caught off guard at any moment.
Elicitation is, first of all, communication, so do not confuse this technique with other techniques. Some experts believe that successful communication requires 3 things::
There are other important aspects of successful communication
Pre-processing
Imagine that you went to a movie. You buy a ticket and see posters with upcoming films, you sit in a chair and you are shown videos with future novelties. At the same time, each video sets you up for a certain mood through music, intonation, exclamations and other techniques. All this is called pre-processing of consciousness. Little is written about this technique, but in vain, because it deserves attention.
So how can it be used?
First, decide on your goal, because you need to start with it. Then you should create a pool of questions that you need to ask your interlocutor in accordance with the goal, and then you need to understand what information will make them answer these questions.
Here is one of the popular examples. Your friend comes into the room and says: "I want to tell you an incredibly funny story." What happens to you next? Most likely, you will start smiling in advance, expecting to hear a really funny story. That is, your friend processed you before you even heard his story.
How to become a successful solicitor?
Experience shows that in order to become a successful solicitor, you need 4 components:
The US Department of Homeland Security has developed a special booklet on elicitation methods for its agents, which will reveal many useful secrets for you. Here are a few tricks from the booklet.
Appeal to the other person's ego
The scenario in the booklet is something like this:
Manipulator: "You must have a very important job; so - and-so seems to speak very highly of you."
An object: "Thank you, but my job isn't that important. I'm just doing......"
The way to appeal to a person's ego is simple but effective. However, remember: if you overdo it or do it insincerely, the person will turn away from you. The appeal to the ego is primarily aimed at establishing contact with the object. This method allows you to gain confidence and get a person to talk, especially if they are prone to narcissism.
Expression of mutual interest
The scenario is as follows:
Manipulator: "Wow, do you have any experience in the field of ISO 9001 database compliance? You should definitely see the reporting model that we have developed. I'll send you a copy."
An object: "I'd love to see it. This can help in our work."
The expression of mutual interest is an important aspect in the process of elicitation. In this case, an agreement was reached on further contact, the object agreed to accept the software from the attacker and expressed interest in discussing future plans. All this can be used to violate the integrity of its information system.
Obviously false statement
Manipulator: "Everyone knows that Company XYZ has released the best software for this widget."
An object: "In fact, this is not the case. Our company started selling a similar product in 1998, and our sales were 23% higher."
If you use such statements effectively, the subject can share important real facts in a fit of indignation. Most people prefer to correct false statements because they want to show their competence. This weakness can always be used skillfully.
Information flow
This is a very clever technique that affects the foundations of people's social organization. Communication between people is basically an exchange of information. Thus, the more one party shares interesting information, the more likely it is that the other party will do the same. This is especially true for secrets and gossip, when no one wants to reveal their cards first.
False knowledge
Another powerful tool of manipulation is false knowledge. An attacker can deliberately present information as if they are an expert in this area. The conversation is built around the designated topic, after which the subject is invited to share their opinion. This opinion may contain useful information.
It is important that the subject does not have a deep knowledge of what you talked about as a specialist.
Using the alcohol effect
It's an old trick: give a man a good drink of alcohol and his tongue will immediately loosen up.
Using smart questions
Open questions. Questions that can't be answered with just "no" or"yes". For example: "What do you think about today's weather?". The obvious advantage of such questions is that the interviewee is forced to share certain information or opinions. If you feel that your questions cause rejection, then you can try using the pyramid technique. This is a technique in which narrow questions are asked first, and then increasingly broad and voluminous questions.
Closed questions. The opposite of open-ended questions. They are well used by investigators and state prosecutors, because they deprive the object of space for maneuver, because the answer can only be "yes" or"no".
Leading questions. For leading questions, both open and closed questions can be used. Their advantage is that the manipulator always controls the direction of the dialogue, adjusting subsequent leading questions depending on the available information, while the respondent is not constrained in answering and can freely share available information on a specific question.
Questions based on an assumption. As the name suggests, such questions are asked based on existing assumptions. For example, an investigator can directly ask a suspect "where Citizen X lives", assuming that the suspect is not only familiar with this citizen, but also knows about his location. Such a statement of the question helps to convince the respondent that the interviewer has obvious facts proving his connection with Citizen X.
What do you need to remember when improving your skills in elicitation?
Thus, the main advice when building dialogs is to avoid sharpness and extremes. I advise you to start communicating with simple and general topics, gradually narrowing the scope of communication to the necessary topics. This model will allow you to establish the necessary rapport and give the other person time to feel empathy. The ability to correctly build a dialogue is the most important feature of a good elicitor, so pay special attention to the techniques described above.
The ability to establish contact with a person is what distinguishes a good specialist in the field of social engineering. In this article, we will talk about elicitation – a powerful set of techniques that psychotherapists, representatives of special services, doctors and even lawyers use to influence people's behavior.
Let's start with the basics
What is elimination? This is the ability to convince a person to come to certain conclusions in a logical way or to force them to form these conclusions independently. The term can also refer to actions designed to encourage an individual to engage in certain behaviors or behaviors. For example, in movies, we often hear the phrase "it was very difficult to get a statement out of him." The National Security Agency's training materials define this technique as " covertly and subtly extracting information during a normal conversation."
The advantage of this technique is that the subject is often unaware of the fact of manipulation. The technique works well for several reasons:
- Most people tend to be polite, especially to strangers.
- Conversational professionals want to look knowledgeable and smart.
- If you've been praised, you'll probably talk more and more.
- Most people don't lie unnecessarily.
- Most people are friendly to those who take care of them
Elicitation goals
As the definition implies, elimination is used to force a person to act or think in a certain way. To do this, a specialist in social engineering uses a series of well-structured questions. The more information he gets, the more successful his attack will be. Remember how often we have short, useless conversations with random people – at lunch, in line at the store, etc. This is why elimination is so dangerous – because you can be caught off guard at any moment.
Elicitation is, first of all, communication, so do not confuse this technique with other techniques. Some experts believe that successful communication requires 3 things::
- Naturalness. In order to have a relaxed dialogue, you need to feel confident. Look at how you behave when discussing a topic that is familiar to you, and look at yourself from the outside in situations where it is an unfamiliar area. Compare your behavior. Think about how important it is to act confident and natural even when you don't own the situation.
- Self-study. You don't need to explain how important it is to have information about the subject of your research. For example, your task is to talk to a chemical scientist and learn from him the secrets of the latest developments. If you don't have at least a general idea of the subject of the conversation, you are unlikely to: 1. build a constructive dialogue; 2.understand the secret if successful.
- Ability to listen. Don't focus the conversation solely on the topic that interests you, because the goal will quickly lose interest in you. Be able to listen and let the person speak out, because this way they will be more likely to feel trust and sympathy for you. Sometimes the best negotiators are not those who talk the most, but those who listen the most.
There are other important aspects of successful communication
Pre-processing
Imagine that you went to a movie. You buy a ticket and see posters with upcoming films, you sit in a chair and you are shown videos with future novelties. At the same time, each video sets you up for a certain mood through music, intonation, exclamations and other techniques. All this is called pre-processing of consciousness. Little is written about this technique, but in vain, because it deserves attention.
So how can it be used?
First, decide on your goal, because you need to start with it. Then you should create a pool of questions that you need to ask your interlocutor in accordance with the goal, and then you need to understand what information will make them answer these questions.
Here is one of the popular examples. Your friend comes into the room and says: "I want to tell you an incredibly funny story." What happens to you next? Most likely, you will start smiling in advance, expecting to hear a really funny story. That is, your friend processed you before you even heard his story.
How to become a successful solicitor?
Experience shows that in order to become a successful solicitor, you need 4 components:
- lack of fear of dealing with people and fear of unfamiliar situations;
- a sincere desire to listen and help people, even complete strangers;
- the ability to give advice only when you know the solution to a problem;
- the ability to listen, hear and not treat your interlocutor reprehensibly.
The US Department of Homeland Security has developed a special booklet on elicitation methods for its agents, which will reveal many useful secrets for you. Here are a few tricks from the booklet.
Appeal to the other person's ego
The scenario in the booklet is something like this:
Manipulator: "You must have a very important job; so - and-so seems to speak very highly of you."
An object: "Thank you, but my job isn't that important. I'm just doing......"
The way to appeal to a person's ego is simple but effective. However, remember: if you overdo it or do it insincerely, the person will turn away from you. The appeal to the ego is primarily aimed at establishing contact with the object. This method allows you to gain confidence and get a person to talk, especially if they are prone to narcissism.
Expression of mutual interest
The scenario is as follows:
Manipulator: "Wow, do you have any experience in the field of ISO 9001 database compliance? You should definitely see the reporting model that we have developed. I'll send you a copy."
An object: "I'd love to see it. This can help in our work."
The expression of mutual interest is an important aspect in the process of elicitation. In this case, an agreement was reached on further contact, the object agreed to accept the software from the attacker and expressed interest in discussing future plans. All this can be used to violate the integrity of its information system.
Obviously false statement
Manipulator: "Everyone knows that Company XYZ has released the best software for this widget."
An object: "In fact, this is not the case. Our company started selling a similar product in 1998, and our sales were 23% higher."
If you use such statements effectively, the subject can share important real facts in a fit of indignation. Most people prefer to correct false statements because they want to show their competence. This weakness can always be used skillfully.
Information flow
This is a very clever technique that affects the foundations of people's social organization. Communication between people is basically an exchange of information. Thus, the more one party shares interesting information, the more likely it is that the other party will do the same. This is especially true for secrets and gossip, when no one wants to reveal their cards first.
False knowledge
Another powerful tool of manipulation is false knowledge. An attacker can deliberately present information as if they are an expert in this area. The conversation is built around the designated topic, after which the subject is invited to share their opinion. This opinion may contain useful information.
It is important that the subject does not have a deep knowledge of what you talked about as a specialist.
Using the alcohol effect
It's an old trick: give a man a good drink of alcohol and his tongue will immediately loosen up.
Using smart questions
Open questions. Questions that can't be answered with just "no" or"yes". For example: "What do you think about today's weather?". The obvious advantage of such questions is that the interviewee is forced to share certain information or opinions. If you feel that your questions cause rejection, then you can try using the pyramid technique. This is a technique in which narrow questions are asked first, and then increasingly broad and voluminous questions.
Closed questions. The opposite of open-ended questions. They are well used by investigators and state prosecutors, because they deprive the object of space for maneuver, because the answer can only be "yes" or"no".
Leading questions. For leading questions, both open and closed questions can be used. Their advantage is that the manipulator always controls the direction of the dialogue, adjusting subsequent leading questions depending on the available information, while the respondent is not constrained in answering and can freely share available information on a specific question.
Questions based on an assumption. As the name suggests, such questions are asked based on existing assumptions. For example, an investigator can directly ask a suspect "where Citizen X lives", assuming that the suspect is not only familiar with this citizen, but also knows about his location. Such a statement of the question helps to convince the respondent that the interviewer has obvious facts proving his connection with Citizen X.
What do you need to remember when improving your skills in elicitation?
- Too many questions is not always a good thing, because a person can simply close. It is important to remember that you need to build a two-way contact.
- Too few questions won't have the desired effect. Remember the "awkward silence"? This is the last thing we need in our business.
- Focus on one thing at a time. Switching from one topic to another can be tedious, and the subject is unlikely to gain sustained interest in the conversation.
Thus, the main advice when building dialogs is to avoid sharpness and extremes. I advise you to start communicating with simple and general topics, gradually narrowing the scope of communication to the necessary topics. This model will allow you to establish the necessary rapport and give the other person time to feel empathy. The ability to correctly build a dialogue is the most important feature of a good elicitor, so pay special attention to the techniques described above.
