Inconsistent statements. If a person’s response to a question is inconsistent with something he said previously, your inclination might be to come back with something like, “Wait a minute! That’s not what you said before!” But if you do that, how cooperative is he likely to be? The person has provided you with information that might be closer to the truth than what he said earlier, and he doesn’t want his nose rubbed in the fact that he didn’t share it with you previously.
