Suspiciously similar to a trick parents use on their children. "Do you want to eat the peas first or the carrots first?" Gives them the illusion that they made a choice about what to eat.

Yea. It's simple when you change the question from "do you want to buy X?" To making the assumption that they already will buy it and now the only question is "what color will you be buying?"

in the same class: when interviewing about awkward topics, don't immediately ask then next question. People tend to keep expanding their answer to fill an awkward pause. often saying more than they initially intended to

Law school?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique

The ole cock-thumb.

You don't even have to passive voice it - a simple "I felt upset" is fully valid without assigning blame.

I don't like the Socratic method as it is employed in classrooms. I think the method of questioning is fine, and dissecting a subject can be fun with the right group and foreknowledge, but most instructors absolutely suck at making sure all students are up to speed with whatever is being discussed.

I don't see its value as a teaching tool without a strong enough instructor to prepare the students for its use and to guide the discussions in a productive manner.

Every professor I've ever had who used this method basically wasted class time with fill in the blank response questions. These are not higher order thinking discussions and do nothing to actually broaden understanding of whichever subject is being discussed. It seems like a cop out for the professor to me, at least how I've seen it used in multiple major universities.

I've had better Socratic discussions while high as fuck with my buddies after class than when we were actually in the lecture hall.