Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

positive effect on rapport, they tended to be no more effective than traditional
listening skills taught to beginning counselors. In essence, research has failed to
substantiate claims that NLP creates nearly magical powers of influence.
Other work has examined NLP’s theory that people possess mental capabilities
and perform mental operations according to a “primary representational system”
(i.e., visual, auditory, or kinesthetic) that is reflected in their language and eye
movements. NLP posits that observations of a person’s eye movements can reveal
how the person is mentally accessing or representing the experience of their
response. Some interrogation trainers have applied these principles as though
they might also be useful indicators of deception. The preponderance of empirical
research, however (even by “believers” in NLP) has failed to produce strong
evidence for the existence of primary representational systems or for the claimed
associations between eye movement patterns and internal mental processing. A
1987 National Research Council panel concluded that: “The committee finds no
scientific evidence to support the claim that neurolinguistic programming is an
effective strategy for exerting influence.” 20 No credible scientific studies since
that time would substantially modify that conclusion.
Subliminal Persuasion
Subliminal persuasion has also been of interest to those concerned with
strategies for interpersonal influence. Subliminal messages are defined as
those delivered “beneath the threshold of conscious awareness.” Particularly
since the Korean War, theories have emerged that people may be receptive to
messages that they barely notice (or do not notice) and that these messages can
shape behavior. If, in fact, persuasive messages can be perceived and can affect
behavior without the subject’s awareness, this approach could have application
to managing uncooperative sources without coercion (albeit, with its own set of
ethical dilemmas).
For more than 30 years marketing researchers have studied the ability of
various subliminal advertising (persuasive) stimuli to affect the behavior of
potential consumers. However, Nick Epley of Cornell University, a leading
researcher in the area of subliminal persuasion, concludes simply that “the resulting
body of work…has produced far from impressive results….” Similarly, research
evaluations of audio material with subliminally embedded messages (such as those
promoting self-esteem or weight loss) have shown that they produce no effects
beyond what people expect to experience (Greenwald, Spangenberg, Pratkanis,
and Eskenazi, 1991; Pratkanis, 1992). Eight years later, another review (Moore
and Pratkanis, 2000) reported that “recent scientific evidence continues to support
our original appraisal that actions, motives, and beliefs are NOT susceptible to
manipulation through the use of briefly (i.e., subliminally) presented messages or
20
Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories and Techniques, Report of the Commission
on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press,
1988), 21.
27