One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that refines an abstract model. Note that abstraction refinement is commonly used in formal property verification. During operation, the system receives an abstract model which is a subset of a logic design which can be represented using a set of variables and a set of Boolean functions. Next, the system receives a safety property for the logic design which is desired to be proven. The system also receives a set of counter-examples. A counter-example is a sequence of states that violates the safety property. Note that a state is an assignment of values to the variables, which are determined using the set of Boolean functions and the variable values in the previous state. The system then determines a set of cooperative variables using the set of counter-examples. A cooperative variable is a variable that can help invalidate all counter-examples. The system then refines the abstract model using the set of cooperative variables.