A loaded question as used in an interrogation is a question that contains presuppositions such that when the respondent gives any direct answer to the question he concedes certain assumptions that are at issue and that are damaging to his interests or the interests of someone who actions he has witnessed.
Loaded question
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A loaded question or complex question fallacy is a question that contains a controversial or unjustified assumption (e.g., a presumption of guilt).Aside from being an informal fallacy depending on usage, such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool: the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner's agenda. The traditional example is the question 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' Whether the respondent answers yes or no, he will admit to having a wife and having beaten her at some time in the past. Thus, these facts are presupposed by the question, and in this case an entrapment, because it narrows the respondent to a single answer, and the fallacy of many questions has been committed. The fallacy relies upon context for its effect: the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious. Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious. Hence the same question may be loaded in one context, but not in the other. For example, the previous question would not be loaded if it were asked during a trial in which the defendant had already admitted to beating his wife.This fallacy should be distinguished from that of begging the question (not to be confused with raising the question), which offers a premise whose plausibility depends on the truth of the proposition asked about, and which is often an implicit restatement of the proposition.
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loaded question
A question that carries additional emotional weight or significance—whether positive or negative—beyond its literal or basic meaning. A: 'Tell me, how would you describe your relationship with your mother?' B: 'Wow, what a loaded question!'
loaded question
A question heavy with meaning or emotional impact, as in When he inquired after Helen's ex-husband, that was a loaded question. This term employs loaded in the sense of 'charged with hidden implication.' [Mid-1900s]
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