How You Ask The Question

Often the tone or quality of the answer you receive depends on how you ask the question. Some questions include presuppositions that the person being questioned almost automatically accepts without thinking about. In a restaurant, the waitress asks you what type of dressing you want on your salad, or how you want your steak cooked. The idea that they could have their salad with no dressing, or eat their steak raw isn't usually conciously considered.

In the article below, the Nikkei reporter asked an Amazon senior VP about the difference between 'real' and 'e-commerce' business. The concept of their being a difference between the two certainly exists in the reporter's mind, but I'm not sure that it was part of the mental image for the VP until the loaded question was presented.
E-Commerce Has Competitive Edge Over Real Business: Amazon.com Senior VP
- posted by tempusmaster @ 8:16 PM