Loaded question

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title: "Loaded question" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["informal-fallacies"] description: "Question containing an unjustified assumption" topic_path: "general/informal-fallacies" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Question containing an unjustified assumption ::

A loaded question is a form of complex question that contains a controversial assumption (e.g., a presumption of guilt).

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. This informal fallacy should be distinguished from that of begging 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.

Defense

A common way out of this argument is not to answer the question (e.g. with a simple 'yes' or 'no'), but to challenge the assumption behind the question. To use an earlier example, a good response to the question "Have you stopped beating your wife?" would be "I have never beaten my wife". This removes the ambiguity of the expected response, therefore nullifying the tactic. However, the asker may respond to a challenge by accusing the one who answers of dodging the question.

Historical examples

Diogenes Laërtius wrote a brief biography of the philosopher Menedemus in which he relates that:

For another example, the 2009 New Zealand child discipline referendum asked: "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?" Murray Edridge, of Barnardos New Zealand, criticized the question as "loaded and ambiguous" and claimed "the question presupposes that smacking is a part of good parental correction".

References

References

1. Bassham, Gregory. (2004). "Critical Thinking". [[McGraw-Hill]].
2. link. (2023-04-07)
3. "Fallacy: Begging the Question". The Nizkor Project.
4. Carroll, Robert Todd. (31 July 2003). "The Skeptic's Dictionary". [[John Wiley & Sons]].
5. Layman, C. Stephen. (2003). "The Power of Logic".
6. Walton, Douglas N.. (November 1999). "The fallacy of many questions: on the notions of complexity, loadedness and unfair entrapment in interrogative theory". Argumentation.
7. Laertius, Diogenes. (1853). "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers". H.G. Bohn.
8. (June 15, 2009). "Anti-smacking debate goes to referendum". 3 News.

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