Most conversations are shaped by questions. We ask them to learn about someone’s background, their work, or their opinions. But questions come with a cost. They can feel intrusive, put people on guard, or make them less willing to share.
I remember the week I first met Aaron. We were in a course together, and I watched him take a different approach with one of our instructors. Instead of asking a direct question, he made a confident statement that was just slightly off. The instructor immediately jumped in to correct him and then walked through the details. I knew exactly what Aaron was doing the moment I saw it, and I liked it. It was elicitation in action, applied cleanly and without effort, and it was memorable to see it work so well in real time.
That is the essence of elicitation, a method built on carefully chosen statements rather than direct questions. Its strength lies in the fact that people do not feel interrogated. They feel like they are volunteering information on their own terms.
A casual remark like “I heard they raised pay here to twenty six an hour” will often draw a correction that reveals the truth. The same dynamic plays out in professional meetings, networking, or even casual conversations in an Uber. Elicitation works because it leans on a universal human tendency: the need to clarify, correct, and expand.
Elicitation did not begin in boardrooms or sales trainings. It first appeared wherever sensitive information collided with ordinary conversation. The principle is simple. People are far more likely to clarify, correct, or expand on a statement than they are to answer a pointed question. That tendency was recognized early, and it became a tool of both warning and exploitation.
During the Second World War, the American public was reminded of the danger with posters that warned, “Loose lips sink ships.” The message was not about interrogations in dark rooms. It was about sailors in ports who, in the course of casual talk, could reveal details that gave adversaries an advantage. The lesson was that everyday conversation could carry operational risk.
By the Cold War, the practice had matured into a deliberate method. Young sailors on liberty in Singapore or Thailand became prime targets. A stranger in a bar might make a confident but slightly inaccurate statement about submarine propeller size or performance. Fueled by alcohol and pride, a nineteen year old would correct the record and, in the process, hand over details that never should have left the boat. Intelligence officers understood that the need to correct is a powerful lever, and they refined it into repeatable techniques. Correction, disbelief, and bracketing were all ways to keep a conversation flowing without a single direct question.
The pattern showed up in more serious breaches as well. The Lonetree affair of the 1980s, though built on personal relationships rather than barroom banter, followed the same arc. Rapport came first, small disclosures followed, and only later did those exchanges grow into damaging leaks. What started as social contact ended in compromise.
Over time, the method was codified. The FBI published unclassified brochures describing elicitation as the discreet collection of information through normal conversation, listing tactics like making a false statement to invite correction or expressing disbelief to draw out a refutation. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency continues to issue similar guidance, underscoring how consistent the psychology is. Even outside government, the same ideas migrated into competitive intelligence literature, with authors explaining how businesses could lawfully surface nonpublic information through the same conversational strategies. John Nolan’s out of print book Confidential became a touchstone in that world.
The continuity across these examples is telling. From war posters to Cold War bars, from federal counterintelligence training to corporate research, the rules have barely shifted. Ask a direct question and you risk a guarded answer. Make a confident statement, and you invite the other person to correct, clarify, and expand. That pattern is why elicitation has endured for decades. It works in liberty ports, it works in business meetings, and it works in everyday life. The surface has changed, but the psychology has not.
Elicitation is not a theory confined to manuals. It works because it is rooted in ordinary human behavior, and that makes it just as effective in a grocery store or a rideshare as it is in a port city or a diplomatic reception. The principle remains constant. When people hear something that is almost right but not quite, they feel compelled to set the record straight.
Picture walking into a market and making an offhand remark to the clerk. “I heard they bumped hourly pay here to twenty six an hour.” You have not asked a question, yet you are likely to get an immediate correction. “Not here, I make seventeen.” The information is now yours, offered freely, and the conversation moves on without friction. The same dynamic plays out in a rideshare when you casually note, “Drivers seem to rate night shifts higher than mornings.” Whether the driver agrees or pushes back, you learn something about patterns, frustrations, or earnings without ever putting them under the spotlight of a direct question.
The Cold War stories highlight the same mechanism at higher stakes. A nineteen year old sailor in a bar hears a stranger confidently state that American submarine propellers measure only eighteen feet across. Pride and youth collide, and the sailor cannot resist correcting the error, revealing details that should never have left the boat. The stranger did not need to pry. He needed only the right statement.
In professional life, the technique works just as cleanly. At a networking event, someone might remark, “So you are covering both the east and the midwest markets.” The contact clarifies that they handle only the east, and in doing so reveals how the team is structured. In a meeting, a comment like, “It looks like your move date falls between March and May,” will often be corrected to the precise month. Even a mild expression of disbelief can open the door. “There is no way leadership would roll out in February. Winter shipping alone would kill it.” More often than not, the reply is greater detail, not less.
Elicitation works because it builds in layers. A correction leads naturally into a recap, which invites elaboration, which then opens space for disbelief or a bracketed range. Each exchange feels unforced, each step draws the other person deeper, and the result is information shared willingly rather than guarded. It is a method that rewards patience, precision, and attention to detail.
Field Note: Three Elicitation Challenges
The Paycheck Test
In a public place, strike up a casual conversation and discover how much someone makes within the first two minutes — without asking a single question. Use a confident statement and watch how quickly the correction comes.
The Bracket
Offer a range and let the other person narrow it. “So your trip is sometime between mid June and July.” Most people will immediately specify earlier or later.
The Disbelief Play
Make a mild but confident statement of doubt. “There is no way your team finished that project before quarter end.” The urge to correct will usually bring out specifics — timelines, obstacles, and processes you never had to ask about.
These challenges are not about manipulation. They are about sharpening awareness of how people reveal information when they do not feel questioned. Run them, take notes, and watch how fast small talk turns into something more valuable.
Elicitation is one of those skills that looks invisible until you know it exists. Once you recognize it, you start to see it everywhere, in casual small talk, in workplace conversations, even in the way strangers test each other’s knowledge in passing. It has survived from liberty ports in the Cold War to coffee shops and rideshares today because it works on something universal, the human need to correct, clarify, and expand.
Practicing it forces you to slow down, pay attention, and build conversations with intent. You begin to notice the difference between a question that shuts someone down and a statement that draws them out. You learn to layer exchanges without rushing, to let silence work in your favor, and to pick up on the small tells that reveal more than people realize they are giving away.
For the prepared individual, this is more than a curiosity from the intelligence world. It is a way to gather social and professional insight cleanly, to understand people more deeply, and to carry conversations with more purpose. Information moves the world. Those who can draw it out without resistance are always operating at an advantage.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Elicitation: The Art of Obtaining Information. Counterintelligence Awareness Brochure, FBI.gov.
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Counterintelligence Awareness and Reporting. dcsa.mil.
Stillman, Jessica. “This Ex-CIA Agent Explains the Best Way to Get People to Reveal Their Secrets.” Inc.com, 2023.
Lekati, Christina. “Elicitation Techniques.” Medium, 2019.
Office of War Information. “Loose Lips Sink Ships” campaign, WWII. National Archives.
Records on Clayton J. Lonetree case, 1987. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.