FBI mind attack: the super psychological tactics of the US federal police

Chapter 11 Knowing what is reasonable and knowing what is beneficial - FBI's shrewd "humanity tactics" (2)
Before being discharged from the hospital, this patient with a special status to Howard received this medical expense notice. She really didn't want to read this notice, because it was very likely to cost half of her life savings.But when she opened the notice, the signature on it caught her attention, and she read softly: "Medical bills—the price of a glass of milk. Dr. Howard George."

Analyzing the above examples from the psychological point of view of the FBI, this is a typical example of "emotional reciprocity".Everyone will have the mentality of giving back the favors and help given by others in a special period. Only in this way can the pressure in people's hearts be reduced. This pressure comes from the charity or help given by others.In other words, people use "emotional reciprocity" to achieve a certain balance in their hearts.Therefore, this kind of emotional investment in others is like banknotes in the bank. The longer the time, the more profitable it will be in the end.

This reminds us that when managing interpersonal relationships in our daily life, we should pay attention to investing in human relationships. The rate of return on this investment is often higher than your expectation, and it can bring you out of trouble or lead you to a better life.

3. There are skills in routines, let the opponent take the initiative to showdown

FBI criminal psychology research experts said that many times when we want the other party to do something, the other party is not willing to do it; or when we want to obtain certain information, it is difficult for the other party to actively provide you with required information.At this time, if you continue to go straight and ask directly, there will be no further results.At this time, if you can change the angle, start from the other party's psychological positioning, understand the other party's needs, and then use the method of inducement, you can often easily let the other party take the initiative to say the information you want or do what you want. To do things, in order to indirectly achieve your original goal.And this is called "mind control."

(1) Deliberately say or do wrong things
Say something wrong on purpose, and then wait for the other party to correct, so that you can know what the other party really thinks or whether the other party knows or has done something.This technique is called "talking with words", and it is also a kind of "mind control".For example, when the FBI is trying a case, if it directly explains the situation to the criminal suspect, and then interrogates the details of the case, the old and cunning criminals will naturally not take the initiative to admit their crimes, and once this direct questioning method is adopted, it is also very dangerous. It is possible to scare the snake away, not only will the original purpose not be achieved, but the interrogation in the future may be even more difficult.And if you use this kind of "routine technique" of deliberately saying wrong words and doing wrong things, sometimes it will make the other party relax, and then inadvertently say important information, and by using this, you can get a lot of information from the other party's mouth. Find valuable clues.

The FBI once arrested a serial rapist and murderer, but because there was no direct evidence and the suspect denied it, the interrogation of the case came to a deadlock.After investigation, investigators found that the criminal was extremely sensitive to numbers and had mild sequential compulsion symptoms.In other words, the criminal suspect could hardly tolerate certain established sequences being disrupted.

So, the FBI decided to use this to expose the suspect.During the interrogation, the investigators took out the scene photos of all the women who were killed by the suspect when they died, and fixed the photos on the display board in the order of the events, took out three of them, and inserted them into all the women in random order. In the photos, the disordered order is deliberately marked in an obvious position, so that the suspect can find it at a glance.During the interrogation, the FBI earnestly asked various details of a series of cases, deliberately not paying attention to the display board with photos hanging next to it, but the suspect answered absent-mindedly, and the excuses for denying were changing all the time, and from time to time Scanning the photos next to him with his eyes, he seemed restless.The investigators pretended to ignore it and continued to make routine inquiries.After a while, the suspect became short of breath and asked for water and a cigarette; after a while, the suspect finally broke out, jumped up from his seat, and stood next to the display board, adjusting the order of the photos, While shouting wildly: "You idiots, trash! This woman should have died before this! This woman should have been placed here! How can this order be messed up!" Seeing this situation, the investigators smiled Said: "Oh, is it? It seems that the row is really wrong, thank you for adjusting it. However, some of the cases in this case have not been announced to the outside world. Why do you know the exact time in such detail?" Suddenly, the suspect The man slumped on the chair and had to admit his crime.

This is a typical case of using wrong words and things to find out the real situation of things.

In the usual study and work, this cliché technique is also very practical.For example, if you have just entered a new unit and want to know whether your immediate boss is married, but you are too embarrassed to ask directly, you can ask your colleagues like this: "I heard that our supervisor is married. It's been a year, life should be quite happy, look at how well maintained it is!"

"No, he's only been married for half a year, right?"

"Ah, that's my memory."

In this way, you will be able to achieve your established goal - make sure that the supervisor is married and has been married for half a year.

People often have the desire to correct the obvious mistakes of others to show their profound knowledge, and "using clichés" is a cliché technique based on this human psychological characteristic.Say the "wrong" thing or do the "wrong" thing, and then let the other person take the initiative to "correct", so that the other person will unconsciously reveal the important information you want to know.

In fact, this cliché technique can also be used in daily life to expand interpersonal communication or enliven the atmosphere.

For example, when the company is in a meeting, the boss speaks on it, and everyone listens with bated breath, and the meeting room is completely quiet.As we talked, the boss began to make frequent mistakes, even common sense questions.Among the people present, finally some courageous people couldn't stand it any longer, and stood up to correct it.After hearing this, the boss smiled and said: Of course I am not right in everything, so I need other people's reminders and opinions.Well, now someone finally speaks.As a result, the originally dull and rigid meeting atmosphere began to become active.

In the above examples, this intentional "speaking wrong" is actually an art of "showing mistakes", that is, making a fuss about "wrong" when speaking, so as to attract the attention and reflection of the other party.In the process of interpersonal communication, this method is actually an excellent way to criticize, raise points and save others face.

(2) Take advantage of the "intermission" to regain the initiative of discourse

In sports such as football and basketball in competitive sports, during the game, the coach will often apply for a timeout when the players of his team are weak or in poor condition.The reason why the coach does this is because on the one hand, it can re-adjust the strategic layout; on the other hand, it can interrupt the high momentum of the opponent's hand gestures, and at the same time, it can also give his players time to breathe and rest, interrupt the weak situation just now, and let the players play in a new way. The state of the game will be put into the subsequent games, so as to help the players reverse the unfavorable situation on the field.

The FBI believes that in the process of conversations between people, such "intermissions" or artificially created "pauses" can also be used to help them return the conversation to their original planned track. Take back the right to speak when you are at a disadvantage.This method of snatching the right to speak by relying on the pause method is called "time delay method" in psychology.That is, to prolong the time to temporarily suspend the conversation, and to use the interruption of the conversation to realize the interruption of the other party's right to speak, and then take the initiative in the next stage of the conversation.

For example, when you are having a conversation with a person, the other person chatters endlessly, completely ignoring your mood, let alone stop talking to listen to your opinion.Maybe the other party is talking too much unintentionally, but in this case, if you don't want to interrupt his speech, your ears will suffer round after round of words, and your own will will be suppressed. I can't vent in my heart.At this time, you should take the initiative to fight for the right to speak.For example, you can deliberately drop pens, coins, notebooks and other items in your hand on the ground, and at the same time make a small exclamation in your mouth to startle the other party, and then make him stop talking temporarily.Then when you pick up the thing, before the other person starts talking again, be the first to speak and express your point of view, thus regaining the right to speak.

This method can also be used when conducting business negotiations in the mall.If you want to have a successful conversation, you must first overwhelm the other party in terms of momentum. If the other party chatters and robs you of your right to speak, and your right to speak cannot be fully utilized, then it will be difficult to put pressure on the other party.From the perspective of the ability and results of the negotiation between the two parties, the party who speaks more generally has a greater chance of obtaining the final decision, while the party who listens passively can only be at a disadvantage.Therefore, when negotiating, we must avoid the right to speak from being taken away by the other party.

If you lose the right to speak during the negotiation, you need to deliberately create some "unexpected actions" to temporarily suspend the other party's speech and snatch the right to speak.At this time, in addition to dropping the things at hand on the ground, you can also leave for a while and return to the negotiation scene after a while.This is the best time for you to regain your right to speak.But it should be noted that after successfully interrupting the conversation, when you return to the scene again, you should start with "I'm sorry, what I just mentioned, I think..." to smoothly transition your words.In this way, the right to speak is back in your hands.Remember, when using this method and returning to the conversation scene, you must be the first to speak. Only in this way can you naturally and smoothly control the right to speak in your own hands.

In the years of competition with criminals, the FBI has summed up the precautions when using "delaying time" to seize the opportunity for questioning: When you want to interrupt the other party from the state of talking, you must artificially Create some "unexpected actions" so that the follow-up development of the matter will not appear to be too abrupt and cause the other party's psychological dissatisfaction, and then naturally pick up things or leave the scene temporarily, thus creating time and opportunities for distributing the right to speak .Another point to note is that when a new round of dialogue resumes, you must strive for the opportunity to speak first.

(3) Use the method of "knocking on the sidelines" to let the other party reveal their bottom line
During the interrogation of criminal suspects by the FBI, most of the suspects will not be so obedient, so that investigators can smoothly learn the precious information they need to know.In view of this situation, FBI investigators have to rack their brains, fight wits and courage with the criminal suspect, and draw out valuable clues in his words.Among them, one of the methods commonly used by the FBI is to "knock around" while the suspect is distracted, so as to obtain the information they want to know.

There is such a case that in the streets of New York at night, there are often drivers driving around after drinking alcohol, and in order to prevent themselves from being caught by the police after drinking, and to measure the alcohol content, many drivers will chew while driving. Chewing gum, which caused a headache for New York's traffic police.

Once, a traffic policeman stopped a black car while on duty at night. While the car was pulling over, the traffic policeman clearly saw that the wife of the driver sitting in the passenger seat fed a Chewing gum, at that time the traffic police had concluded from the heart that the driver must have drunk alcoholic beverages.

So after the car came to a complete stop, the traffic policeman knocked on the window and asked the driver to roll down the window. Then he pretended to be very easy-going and asked casually, "Brother, you and your wife went out for dinner, now go home?"

The driver replied, "Yes."

The traffic police said: "Well, there are a lot of cars on the road, so you have to drive slowly. It's not safe for your wife to sit in the passenger seat. You should let her sit in the back."

While answering, the driver thought to himself: What's the matter with this traffic policeman, isn't he going to give me a device to test the alcohol content?
Just when the driver was thinking wildly, the traffic policeman suddenly asked: "So, did you have a good dinner tonight, Italian food? Mexican food?"

The driver replied: "French food."

The traffic policeman then asked: "French food is very good, romantic and sentimental, so what kind of wine is it with?"

The driver replied casually: "A bottle of Schneiger wine, and then... ah!"

The traffic policeman laughed. The driver himself admitted that he had been drinking, and it was a bottle of wine.When faced with the situation that the alcohol tester could not accurately determine the alcohol content of the driver, the traffic policeman still calmly chatted with the driver, and then successfully measured the driver's alcohol content with his "mouth" by using side-by-side and step-by-step methods .

The method of "spoofing on the sidelines" can play an obvious role in daily life, because when someone launches a strong psychological defense because of something, he will be suspicious of your behavior of "talking about him". This creates loopholes in the psychological defense.Taking advantage of such a loophole, and then suddenly going back to the topic to be discussed or asking questions that they want to know, the other party will often find it difficult to make adaptive adjustments because of this huge contrast, and it is easy to "smoothly" tell the truth.Obviously, this way you get the information you need out of it.

(4) The magical effect of the "provoking method"
Among the classic cases of the FBI is this:
A criminal suspect in a case of homicide and dismemberment has been captured, but due to the lack of conclusive evidence, no matter how interrogated, the criminal suspect insists that he is innocent. The FBI investigators were very anxious, but they had no choice but to re-investigate, not letting go of any details of the case, and asked the suspect's friends and neighbors about the situation to deepen their understanding of the suspect's psychological state.

Later, in another interrogation, the suspect still insisted that he was innocent, that he did not kill anyone, let alone dismember his body.Under such circumstances, the investigators of the FBI also became anxious, and then said to the suspect: "You are a coward, dare not act. No wonder your friends say you have no guts. If you can really do something this time The act of murder can be regarded as a different opinion of you! But if you really didn't do it..."

Before the FBI investigators could finish speaking, the suspect became visibly agitated. He waved his handcuffed arms and said loudly, "Yes, it was me! He said I was spineless, they all said I Spineless, you dare to say that I am spineless and a coward! That day I just wanted to prove to him how spineless I am, so I killed him, and I want him to know who is the coward!"

This is an example of the FBI cleverly using the "provocative method" in the process of interrogating criminal suspects to get the other party to admit the crime and tell the truth.

The "provocative method" can maximize the use of other people's self-esteem and rebellious psychology, and then apply "stimulation" to them, arousing the emotions of the other party's refusal to admit defeat or maintain their own dignity, and then carry out activities in the stimulated way.In fact, in many cases, this "aggressive method" can have an unusual persuasive effect.Therefore, in daily life, study and work, you can skillfully use the "provocative method" to stimulate the other party's self-esteem, especially when you are facing an opponent with a good face, the "provocative method" can often receive unexpected benefits. Effect.

(End of this chapter)