# Loaded question

*Also called: Complex question, plurium interrogationum*

- **Cluster:** Distraction and distortion — Moving the argument somewhere easier to win
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/loaded-question/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/loaded-question.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Asking a question that smuggles in an unproven assumption, so any direct answer concedes it.

## In the wild

> Have you stopped missing deadlines?

## How to answer it

Refuse the frame first, then answer the fair version of the question.

## Origin and naming

The trap is ancient — Diogenes Laërtius records the philosopher Menedemus being asked whether he had stopped beating his father. Medieval logicians catalogued it as 'plurium interrogationum', the fallacy of many questions packed into one.

## More places it shows up

- A TV host asks a minister: 'When will the government admit it lied about the budget?' — any date offered concedes the lying.
- A hiring manager asks a candidate: 'Why did your last team push you out?' — the answer must first survive the premise.
- A parent asks a teenager: 'Who were you really texting at 2 a.m.?' — guilty of secrecy whatever the reply.
- A commenter demands a scientist explain 'why the data was manipulated' before the manipulation itself has been shown.

## How to spot it

- Notice when both 'yes' and 'no' land you in the same place.
- Notice when the accusation sits inside the grammar of the question, not in any evidence shown.
- Notice when splitting the question in two — 'did it happen?' then 'why?' — is treated as dodging.

## Nearby

- [Straw man](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/straw-man.md)
- [Package deal fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/package-deal.md)
- [Amphiboly](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/amphiboly.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question)
- [The Fallacy Files](https://www.fallacyfiles.org/loadques.html)

---

From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.