- Provocative Statements. Start a sentence with “So I bet” and let them fill in the details. Example: “I bet your job gets pretty stressful.” They will start explaining—no question needed. Narcissists cannot resist talking about themselves, so this trap always works.
- Disbelief Statements. This is when you pretend you don’t fully believe something, not in a rude way, but lightly. Example: “There’s no way your job is that bad. People I met from your company said they liked it.” Watch what happens next; narcissists will unload more details to correct you, revealing more than you asked for.
- Triggering the Need to Correct the Record. This is where things get fun. You make a wrong statement on purpose, and they correct you. For example, if you say, “I heard everyone at your store just got bumped up to $28 an hour. That’s awesome!” The other person will instantly correct you: “No, we make $19 unless you’re a manager.” Boom—you get the truth without asking anything.
Narcissists fall for this every time because they want to sound smart, feel superior, and fix your error. They can’t resist being the one who knows better. This is why elicitation is so powerful; you’re letting them expose themselves. This is the test narcissists have never passed.
It works like this: you bring up something directly, something they don’t want to talk about, something that hits their ego. For example, say, “You’d be shocked how many narcissists pretend to be the perfect partner at first.” Then you watch them. This triggers fear, ego, insecurity, exposure, and loss of control. Narcissists hate being recognized; they fear being found out. They panic when they hear words that reflect their own behavior, and their body reacts instantly—a blink spike, lip compression, jaw tightening, shallow breathing, shoulders rising, body pulling back, fake smile, and face freezing.
This is the elephant-in-the-room test: when truth gets close to them, they can’t hide. They can’t control their biology. They fail this test every single time.
Remember this: the body language tests, the stress tests, the empathy tests, the verbal traps, and the psychological triggers they simply can’t hide from. When you understand these signals, you stop guessing and finally see people for who they really are.
When You and The Narcissist Both Stop Contacting — What Happens Next Will Shock You