Unlocking Secrets: A Step-by-Step Guide for Practicing Elicitation

How often do you find yourself needing information that someone else possesses? Perhaps it’s for a project, a personal inquiry, or even professional needs. What if you could get that information without the person ever realizing that you were trying to extract it? This subtle art is called elicitation, and it’s a powerful tool in the arsenal of intelligence professionals, negotiators, and even everyday people looking to gain insights in a non-intrusive way.

Elicitation is the art of obtaining specific information from someone without them realizing that you’re doing it. It’s not about direct questioning; it’s about leveraging human behavior and natural conversational dynamics to fill in the gaps with the details you’re after.

The Language of Elicitation

Traditional questioning can often put people on guard, making them more cautious about what they share. In contrast, elicitation relies on the natural human inclination to fill in gaps in conversation. For instance, when someone starts a story or provides partial information, people often feel compelled to complete it or offer more details. By making statements or comments that invite further explanation, you can guide the conversation towards the information you need without ever asking direct questions.

The First Steps

Imagine that you have bumped into a complete stranger and your goal is to figure out where they’re from. How would you go about this task?

This is something that most of us have likely either done, or could imagine easily and as such it doesn’t seem to pose much of a challenge, despite the fact that it involves getting specific information from a total stranger.

But now lets adjust the difficulty, and instead of approaching your stranger and getting some likely vague answer of “I live in this city or that” , now imagine how you would get their exact address.

While still doable, this suddenly becomes significantly more complicated, because we envision ourselves being asked by a stranger what apartment we live in, and immediately see the security concerns and red flags.