On Questions

Asking questions is a good way to gather information.  By design, questions demand answers in reply.  Information rarely exists in a vacuum, though, so questions are generally contextual and often have some level of assumptions baked into them.

Most of the time, these assumptions are innocuous and lack controversy.  

“Would you prefer cake or pie?”

This questions assumes that you would be interested in at least one of those food groups, and it assumes that you have a stronger desire for one of them than for the other (at least at that present moment).   For most folks, those are reasonably safe assumptions.

When assumptions are controversial, though, then the question becomes a loaded question.   The quintessential loaded question example is “Have you stopped beating your wife?”    

The problem with loaded questions (and this is really indicative of all questions), is that simple answers tacitly confirm the embedded assumptions.  On its surface, that question can be answered “no” by people who never started beating their wives to begin with, but answering “no” tacitly confirms the presumption that beatings have been occurring, so it sets a bit of a trap.

A seemingly loaded question isn’t necessarily an invalid or disqualified question, though, because the assumptions may very well be true.   Asking a known abuser if he’s stopped beating his wife is a perfectly legitimate question (though, it’s probably not a good ice breaker).   In that case, the textbook example Loaded Question isn’t really all that loaded.

In a similar vein, good faith questions are sometime loaded with a more controversial assumption than we may realize.  It may be that a friendly host asks the cake vs. pie question of an orphan who happened to lose one parent to a cake-related incident and the other to a freak pie accident.  Maybe this orphan is also diabetic.  In that case, the host’s question will probably elicit bad memories, and might cause the person to assume a defensive or hostile posture.

Ok, so maybe that’s a stretch.   The point of my rambling thoughts, though, is that we should be mindful of our questions, and mindful of the assumptions baked in.    Asking simple questions and demanding simple answers (making statements like “Just answer the question yes or no”) can indicate that questions are being used as weapons rather than as a means of furthering understanding.