How to Extract info, Secrets, & Truth (Part 2)

This discusses ways to obtain information from people without them knowingly giving it to you.

This second part to the summary of the book ‘How to Extract info, Secrets, & Truth’ will review the last two chapters: “Read and Tell” and “Interrogation (sort of)”.

Read and Tell

This chapter explains “cold reading”, which is often used by those “psychics” who make astrological predictions or who claim to be able to read a person’s destiny.

Cold reading is a psychological trick comprising various techniques to extract information from strangers. “Cold” here refers to a situation where the person doing the “reading” does not know the person he is going to read at all.

One of the techniques discussed is the shotgun statement. This technique is carried out by putting out several statements or provocative questions that are general in nature to the subject. For example: “You seem like the type of person who likes sports? But not any ordinary sport. Sports like doing fitness at the gym or dance, I assume. Or perhaps you like to do parkour?”

By giving such statements or questions sporadically, it is hoped that the subject will respond to them. These responses then become pieces of information that can be used to extract even more information about the person.

If the subject responds with anything like “Dance? Not really. I like to do Zumba on a regular basis,” thus, the reader learns that the subject enjoys Zumba and may return to that topic to collect further information. “Your boyfriend enjoys Zumba as well?” “Does your residence have a Zumba studio?” and so on.

In addition to shotgun statements, this book also discusses other techniques, such as barnum statements, ignoring the misses, passing off failures as successes, and keeping it vagues.

Interrogation (sort of)

This section goes through several subtle interrogation methods, often used by law enforcement.

The key to this technique is to break down the subject’s defenses. This is accomplished by portraying a casual and easygoing demeanor, so as not to seem a threat to the subject.

Columbo is one of the approaches described. In general, this technique relies on a casual discussion, so that a question may be introduced and answered by the subject unintentionally.

False replay is another technique explained in this book. This technique aims to confuse the subject and unwittingly acknowledge a lie or reveal an inconsistency, based on the idea that individuals who are concealing something or lying must strive hard to hide and cover up their falsehoods with even more lies.

One method to carry out this technique is to repeat the subject’s story, but this time omitting an essential element and seeing how they respond. If the subject responds to that one detail—no matter how the response is—it signifies that the piece of information can and should be extracted further.

Because this book is written in a manner that is easy to fathom by people from all walks of life, it is suitable for a variety of professions, including instructors, beginner investigators, legal practitioners, and so on.