The Scharff technique: training military intelligence officers to elicit information from small cells of sources

Figures & data

Table 1. The category of information and the number of information pieces held by the two sources.

Information category	Wolf	Fox	Pair of sources
Shared New	18	18	18
Unique New	6	6	12
Total New	24	24	30
Already known to interviewer	12	12	12
Total information	36	36	42

Table 2. Comparing the most frequently adopted behaviors by trained and untrained officers.

Variable	Trained		Untrained
	1st	2nd	1st	2nd
Direct Questions (what, when, where, why, how)	83%	83%	100%	100%
Open Questions (your mentioned A, tell more)	83%	61%	79%	68%
Suggestive Questions (provides alternatives)	33%	39%	84%	68%
Logical Questions (but if A, then also B?)	28%	22%	47%	42%
Hypothetical Questions (would it be possible  … ?)	67%	56%	74%	74%
Acknowledges interest in information	6%	17%	21%	21%
Stresses the seriousness of the attack	33%	44%	16%	26%
Highlights consequences with withholding info	0%	0%	21%	16%
Emphasizes opportunities to collaborate	33%	33%	53%	47%
Highlights Trustworthiness	22%	11%	21%	21%
Willingness to Trust	28%	6%	5%	5%
Confidentiality	22%	11%	16%	26%
Encouragements	50%	50%	32%	32%
Reciprocity	22%	33%	10%	0%
Displays empathy	11%	11%	10%	16%
Questions reliability of provided information	6%	11%	26%	42%
Conscience	17%	11%	37%	32%
Pressure	0%	6%	37%	32%
Small talk	11%	6%	5%	21%
Disappointment in contribution	6%	6%	37%	32%

Table 3. Means (and SD) of the Interviewer's adherence to the Scharff tactics and inferential statistics for the independent sample t-tests.

	Trained		Untrained		Results of simple effects tests
	M	(SD)	M	(SD)	t	p	d	95% CI
Info presented source 1	11.06	(2.61)	1.42	(1.57)	13.58	<.001	4.53	3.30, 5.77
Info presented source 2	12.88	(3.87)	2.11	(2.21)	10.40	<.001	3.47	2.44, 4.51
Claims to source 1	1.88	(1.05)	0.00	(0.00)	7.80	<.001	2.60	1.72, 3.49
Claims to source 2	2.18	(0.95)	0.05	(0.23)	9.45	<.001	3.15	2.17, 4.13
Questions to source 1	7.65	(6.68)	33.21	(9.74)	−9.07	<.001	−3.03	−3.99, −2.07
Questions to source 2	8.53	(7.48)	34.68	(14.50)	−6.68	<.001	−2.23	−3.06, −1.40

Figure 1. Illustrating the interaction effect for the subjective and objective scores of new information revealed within and between the trained and untrained officers.