This loaded question presupposes the fact that the person being discussed is a criminal. “Do you think that we should convict this criminal?” Accordingly, if the respondent replies “yes”, because they do support that politician, then their answer will inadvertently suggest that they think that politician is terrible. This loaded question presupposes the fact that the politician being discussed is terrible. “Do you actually support this terrible politician?” They all presuppose something unverified, which the person being questioned might disagree with. This includes, most notably, the loaded question fallacy, the complex question fallacy, the fallacy of many questions, the fallacy of presupposition, the interrogator’s fallacy, and plurium interrogationum.īelow are examples of loaded questions. Note: loaded questions are sometimes referred to by other names, particularly when they’re viewed as a type of a logical fallacy. That is, someone might intuitively reply “yes” if they’re trying to convey the fact that they aren’t mistreating their pet, or “no” if they are trying to convey the fact that they have never mistreated their pet at all. These replies can be intuitive because they represent the type of answer that usually applies to this type of question, and because both replies can make sense if the respondent has never mistreated their pet in the first place. If the respondent says “no”, then they appear to confirm that they have mistreated their pet in the past, and are still doing so in the present.Įssentially, even if the respondent has never engaged in such behavior, their intuition might cause them to reply with either “yes” or “no”, which would seemingly confirm the accusation against them (that they have been mistreating their pet).If the respondent says “yes”, then they appear to confirm that they have mistreated their pet in the past, but have since stopped.However, regardless of which of these options the respondent chooses, they will appear to agree with the question’s underlying presupposition: In this case, the loaded question pushes the respondent to give a yes/no answer. Accordingly, even though this statement is phrased as a question, which is meant to elicit information, it also implicitly provides information about the person who is being questioned. This question is loaded due to its presupposition, which is the implicit background assumption that it contains, and namely the assumption that the person who is being questioned has been mistreating their pet. To understand this concept better, consider the following example of a loaded question: Furthermore, loaded questions are often phrased in a way that pressures the person being questioned to reply in a way that confirms this problematic assumption, rather than in the way that they would normally prefer to reply.
The issue with loaded questions is that they contain an implicit or explicit assumption that the person being questioned is likely to disagree with.
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