The importance of understanding a target's mode of thinking is to get the target into a comfort zone. When a target is in a comfort zone, they can easily open up. Humans generally tend to gravitate towards people that they are comfortable being around. Take for instance the following scenario of a social engineer that has spotted a target in a restaurant. The social engineer sits at a table in the direct sight of a client, somewhere he is sure to capture the target's attention. To discern the target's mode of thinking, the social engineer uses a gold pen. To tell whether the target is a visual thinker, the social engineer waves it around or flicks it in the air while signaling the waiter.

At this point, if the target is a visual thinker, the sight of the gold pen would make him or her follow it up while it is being flicked or waved and the social engineer would observe all this. If this does not work, the social engineer clicks the gold pen while opening and closing it. If the target is an auditory thinker, his or her attention is likely to go to the sound of the pen and probably look up to see whether indeed it is a pen. If all these yield no results, the social engineer could just walk up to the client's table and gently place the pen on the target's shoulder or arm and say, Excuse me, do you have the time? I feel like I am late.

The following image shows the thinking mode of the target:

If the last approach works and the target all of a sudden gains interest in the pen, the social engineer could proceed to determine whether the target is a kinesthetic thinker. This could be done using statements such as, You feel what I mean, or, I feel that you're catching up. Obviously, there would be better word choices depending on the circumstance and type of target. But at the end of the interaction, the social engineer will have affirmed whether the target is a kinesthetic thinker. If not, the social engineer will follow up on other cues to determine the mode of thinking of the target and rectify the approach used. The result would be getting the target comfortable around the social engineer through expressions and word selections that best match those of the client. This is the importance of discerning the mode of thinking.

It is notable that determining one's mode of thinking is not a science and carries no certainties. It is nothing more than one of the tools in a social engineer's toolbox. There are other aspects that are more reliable in a social engineering attack. Some of these aspects are so powerful that they are widely applied by successful psychologists and interrogators. One of these is microexpressions.