RT Article
T1 The Scharff technique: training military intelligence officers to elicit information from small cells of sources
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 26
IS 5
SP 438
OP 460
A1 Granhag, Pär Anders 1964-
A2 Debout-Oleszkiewicz, Simone 1919-
A2 Kleinman, Steven M.
A2 Sakrisvold, Marthe Lefsaker
A2 Oleszkiewicz, Simon
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1765843456
AB Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of the Scharff technique for gathering human intelligence, but little is known about how this efficacy might vary among different samples of practitioners. In this training study we examined a sample of military officers (n = 37). Half was trained in the Scharff technique and compared against officers receiving no Scharff training. All officers received the same case file describing two sources holding information about a terrorist attack. University students (n = 74) took the role of the semi-cooperative sources. Scharff-trained officers adhered to the training as they (1) aimed to establish the ‘knowing-it-all’ illusion, (2) posed claims as a means of eliciting information, and (3) asked fewer explicit questions. The ‘untrained’ officers asked many explicit questions, questioned the reliability of the provided information, pressured the source, and displayed disappointment with the source's contribution. Scharff-trained officers were perceived as less eager to gather information and left their sources with the impression of having provided comparatively less new information, but collected a similar amount of new information as their untrained colleagues. The present paper both replicates and advances previous work in the field, and marks the Scharff technique as a promising technique for gathering human intelligence.
K1 Training study
K1 cells of sources
K1 Human intelligence gathering
K1 Military
K1 the Scharff technique
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2019.1669600