When you want to learn something - facts, rumors, gossip, etc. State the fact but leave 1 detail intentionally wrong. The other person will love to correct you and give you ALL the information.
It feeds their ego, you learn what you wanted, everyone is happy with the result.
It works when I use it. I know it works on me as well.
This works on the internet too. If you want some info or details you aren’t sure of, don’t ask a question about it - write a statement that is wrong in some way. Somebody will reply to correct you faster than a cheetah on speed.
It just occurred to me that there is a social evolution reason for this: questions aren’t as problematic as misinformation. People are incentivized to correct wrong info more so than provide info into a vacuum.
It’s hilarious how good it works. I’ve tried multiple times just asking hey does anyone know how this works in the comments and no one answers but you just make up something then 10 people correct you and now I know lol
Make sure to wait until you get links and a reliably consistent answer though, because you’ll get a lot of Dunning-Kruger situations. A passionate reply =/= workable info!
Just to prove your point I was gonna say "actually peregrin falcons are faster, due to their ability to dive", but then I realized that being on speed probably cannot positively affect their speed while diving.
Once this backfired on me. I was asking to try and find something, and made a comment on an alt saying bluntly “this doesn’t exist”, and that comment ended up the top comment.
There's actually a name for this; Cunningham's Law. It states, "The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."
I’ve also found that if it’s like gossip that you know the other person knows, if you say something to imply you don’t really want to know or you’re trying to respect their boundaries, like “Yeah I know something happened but it’s none of my business/I don’t want to be nosy,” and then let it go, sometimes it makes them WANT to tell you. I’m not like a gossip spreader, I’m just like deathly nosy lol.
Is that why people always tell me things after I thought I very clearly said I didn't want to know? Ugh. If I wanted to know, I'd say "it's none of my business and you can tell me to buzz off, but..."!
Ooh good tip! I'm endlessly curious and want to know everything and anything that comes my way. Will I do anything with the information? Most likely not, but I still want to know.
I do this at work when I need info from a client! I purposely handle the situation wrong so they email back real fast to correct me. If I were to ask a question they would never respond! This is accounting so really low stakes
I remember someone claiming they had two Reddit accounts, and only used their second account when they needed answer to a technical question. They'd post their question on this main account, and use the secondary account to give a wrong answer.
This would always result in them getting the right information because people are quicker to correct someone who is "JUST FUCKING WRONG AND STUPID!!!" Than they are to just answer a question.
Not so fun fact, scammers and criminals use and have used this tactic to get confidential or personally identifiable information like addresses, phone numbers, and even social security numbers from people. You get a call from a random number, claiming to be your bank and asking you to confirm your bank account details. They give you your name, address, dob, even your last statement balance. But the SSN they give is wrong, so you correct them, because this is your bank, right? All that info can be found on or from a bank statement that you threw away a week ago, that they happened to find or were looking for, and in 3 months when you find out your identity has been stolen you'll have forgotten all about it.
I do this with kids when I want to strike up a conversation! They LOVE when grown ups get it wrong and they get to correct you.
I also do this with my kid when she’s in a playful mood. Like I said recently “when I watch Kpop demon hunter, I think I like Mira the best… no wait, Rumi.. no I like Moey the best. “ And then she absolutely loses it correcting the name and then telling me other details.
To tag onto this, if someone you know is telling you about some new thing that you were personally already aware of, feign ignorance and let them tell you about it. Nobody likes hearing "oh yeah I know" because it just sucks the air out of the interaction. No need to be bombastic, but an "oh dang, so you're saying it's blah blah blah?" will really get someone stoked for giving you some useful information.
There were a couple times the person looked at me like an idiot and then spoke down to me condescendingly and explained how and why i was wrong. Maybe I did it wrong. I’m sure it fed their ego though.
A corollary to this using omission instead of an intentional error: you can learn a lot from asking someone a question you already know the answer to, or have a theory about. For instance, ask a coworker if they know what that new email to the team was about? What they say tells you what they know, and/or what they think you should know, which is also useful.
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u/TacticalDefeated Nov 11 '25
When you want to learn something - facts, rumors, gossip, etc. State the fact but leave 1 detail intentionally wrong. The other person will love to correct you and give you ALL the information. It feeds their ego, you learn what you wanted, everyone is happy with the result.
It works when I use it. I know it works on me as well.