False confirmation attack (psychology)

A false confirmation attack is where a hostile individual will generally seek to confirm a conclusion or idea that is false in order to throw you off.

This occurs most frequently with presented closed-ended questions where the assumption is the individual will be honest in response.

Psychology
In psychology, a false confirmation attack would be a red herring emotion or reaction designed to throw an individual attempting to read subconscious cues, usually as a part of a counteraction to depth-charging. Red herring emotions (especially unnatural or poorly performed) are however often subconscious tells in themselves that the individual is attempting to hide something of important and forms a type of confirmation regardless.

Counteraction
Presenting a stacked list or an open-ended question will generally prevent a false confirmation attack, however if you know the individual will form a false confirmation attack, it can be used to form a bi-logic trap which will expose them as lying if you have evidence already to hand to prove that they had performed a false confirmation attack.