The manipulation is that the questioner is asking a question to get an answer which will be used to answer an unasked question, when asking the actual question would be easier and open. (Hope that makes sense)
Its like asking what your favourite colour is and implying life style from it. Fine if you are doing a medical psychological test, because the patient doctor trust exists, but, IMHO, not fine for a mere job interview. OK, the CIA or MI5 can play at that, but not a bog standard IT job.
(Just so you understand where I am coming from; this sort of psychological manipulation is an interest of mine, from advertising to political speech to NLP parlour tricks. So I will happily accept accusations of over sensitivity to this and an exaggerated position. I accept my argument is extreme)
I can certainly see your point, but the article seemed to me to be describing the manipulation done by a psychologist, not a con artist; that is, the interviewer is trying to simulate a natural conversational environment to allow the interviewee to speak freely, not trying to trick the interviewee into revealing something he or she wants to keep secret. (EDIT: As Gnolfo said better about 6 hours ago. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3726756)
I guess that my reaction is motivated by not understanding what the actual, unasked question is. It seems to me that the interviewer is asking pretty much what he or she wants to know. Would the question be more palatable if it came with more of a preface about how the response would be interpreted?
Its like asking what your favourite colour is and implying life style from it. Fine if you are doing a medical psychological test, because the patient doctor trust exists, but, IMHO, not fine for a mere job interview. OK, the CIA or MI5 can play at that, but not a bog standard IT job.
(Just so you understand where I am coming from; this sort of psychological manipulation is an interest of mine, from advertising to political speech to NLP parlour tricks. So I will happily accept accusations of over sensitivity to this and an exaggerated position. I accept my argument is extreme)