Get People to Do What You Want

CHAPTER 4

Tools to Get What You Want

Interrogators get a sophisticated set of tools to use when questioning prisoners. When I am asked what interrogation is, I often describe it as nothing more than extreme interpersonal skills. This set of tools is finite, and the process of putting them to work, describable. I want to stress that your use of them will not catch most people off-guard—it will go unnoticed because most people have no knowledge of them.

All of these tools come from the world of interrogation, where we learned them as effective ways to influence human behavior. Interrogators get little more than what is covered in this chapter; you are getting a comprehensive look at using them to make people do what you want.

By starting out ...