Validation prompts - getting more accurate responses from LLM chats

February 16, 2026

Ever noticed how AI chatbots sometimes get things wildly wrong? Here’s a trick — don’t just trust the first answer. According to /u/OptimismNeeded on Reddit, a simple ‘Double check your answer’ prompt often reveals mistakes and even better solutions. And if the stakes are high, ask, ‘Are you sure?’ or tell the bot to ‘Take a deep breath and think about it’ — which, surprisingly, actually improves accuracy, as a study linked in the article shows. Now, here’s where it gets interesting — using ‘chain of thought’ prompts. Just add it to your questions, and the AI will lay out its reasoning step-by-step. That way, you can see whether it’s going down the right path. So what does this mean for you? These quick techniques can help you get more reliable, transparent responses — at least most of the time. And hey, if you’ve got other validation tricks, share ‘em! It’s all about smarter AI chats, courtesy of /u/OptimismNeeded.

Hallucinations are a problem with all AI chatbots, and it’s healthy to develop the habit of not trusting them, here are a a couple of simple ways i use to get better answers, or get more visibility into how the chat arrived at that answer so i can decide if i can trust the answer or not.

(Note: none of these is bulletproof: never trust AI with critical stuff where a mistake is catastrophic)

“Double check your answer”.

Super simple. You’d be surprise how often Claude will find a problem and provide a better answer.

If the cost of a mistake is high, I will often rise and repeat, with:

“Are you sure?”
“Take a deep breath and think about it”. Research shows adding this to your requests gets you better answers. Why? Who cares. It does.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/telling-ai-model-to-take-a-deep-breath-causes-math-scores-to-soar-in-study/

“Use chain of thought”. This is a powerful one. Add this to your requests gets, and Claude will lay out its logic behind the answer. You’ll notice the answers are better, but more importantly it gives you a way to judge whether Claude is going about it the right way.

Try:

> How many windows are in Manhattan. Use chain of thought

> What’s wrong with my CV? I’m getting not interviews. Use chain of thought.

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If you have more techniques for validation, would be awesome if you can share! 💚

P.S. originally posted on r/ClaudeHomies

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