Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

Russian and Chinese methods and their application during the Korean
War.
Biderman, A. D. (1956). Communist Techniques of Coercive Interrogation.
DTIC – AD0098908. Randolph Air Force Base: Office for Social
Science Programs, Air Force Personnel and Training Research
Center. Distribution authorized to U.S. government agencies and their
contractors.
This report describes the coercive techniques employed by the
Communists to undermine resistance and induce compliance.
Techniques include isolation; monopolization of attention; induced
debilitation and exhaustion; cultivation of anxiety and despair;
alternating punishments and rewards; demonstrating “omnipotence”
and “omniscience” of the captor; degradation; and enforcing trivial
and absurd demands. Physical violence and torture are not an essential
part of the Communist repertoire. The author also comments on the
effectiveness of self-inflicted pain and ideological appeals, as well as
the role of “mind reform” in inducing compliance.
Biderman, A. D. (1957). “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from
Air Force Prisoners of War.” Bulletin NY Academy of Medicine 33 (9),
616–625.
Based on research on repatriated U.S. Air Force POWs captured
in Korea, Biderman’s article describes how Communists shaped
compliance and elicited false confessions. The objective of the
Communists was not merely to get the captor to confess to certain
acts but, rather, to behave as if he actually committed the confessed
crimes. Two useful charts are provided, one outlining the eight coercive
methods used by the Communists, including their effects and specific
forms, and another detailing the range of POW behaviors in response to
coercion, from complete resistance to complete compliance.
Biderman, A. D., and Zimmer, H. (1961). The Manipulation of Human Behavior.
NewYork; London: John Wiley.
This out-of-print book reviews scientific knowledge in the field of
interrogation, focusing on attempts to elicit factual information from
an unwilling subject. It includes the following papers: Lawrence
E. Hinkle Jr., “The physiological state of the interrogation subject
as it affects brain function”; Philip E. Kubzansky, “The effects of
reduced environmental stimulation on human behavior: A review”;
Louis A. Gottschalk, “The use of drugs in interrogation”; R. C. Davis,
“Physiological responses as a means of evaluating information” (this
chapter deals with the polygraph); Dr. Martin T. Orne, “The potential
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