A double-barreled question (sometimes, ''double-direct question'') is an
informal fallacy
Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Falla ...
. It is committed when someone asks a question that touches upon more than one issue, yet allows only for one answer.
[Response bias]
. SuperSurvey, Ipathia Inc.[Earl R. Babbie, Lucia Benaquisto, ''Fundamentals of Social Research'', Cengage Learning, 2009]
Google Print, p.251
/ref>[Alan Bryman, Emma Bell, ''Business research methods'', Oxford University Press, 2007, ]
Google Print, p.267-268
/ref> This may result in inaccuracies in the attitudes being measured for the question, as the respondent can answer only one of the two questions, and cannot indicate which one is being answered.[Ranjit Kumar, ''Research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners'', SAGE, 2005, ]
Google Print, p.136-137
/ref>
Many double-barreled questions can be detected by the existence of the grammatical conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated or ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjunctions. That definition may overlap with that of other parts of s ...
"and
or AND may refer to:
Logic, grammar, and computing
* Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses
* Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition
* Bitwise AND, a boolea ...
" in them.[ This is not a foolproof test, as the word "and" can exist in properly constructed questions.
A question asking about three items is known as "trible (triple, treble)-barreled".][ In legal proceedings, a double-barreled question is called a compound question.
]
Examples
An example of a double-barreled question would be the following: "do you think that students should have more classes about history and culture?" This question asks about two different issues: "do you think that students should have more classes about history" and "do you think that students should have more classes about culture?" Combining both questions into one makes it unclear what exactly is being measured, and as each question may elicit a different response if asked separately there is an increased likelihood of confusing the respondents.[ In other words, while some respondents would answer "yes" to both and some "no" to both, some would like to answer both "]yes and no
''Yes'' and ''no'', or word pairs with similar words, are expressions of the affirmative and the negative, respectively, in several languages, including English. Some languages make a distinction between answers to affirmative versus negative ...
".[
Other examples of double-barreled questions:
* "Please agree or disagree with the following statement: Cars should be faster and safer."][
* "How satisfied are you with your pay and job conditions?"][
* "How often and how much time do you spend on each visit to a hospital?"][
* "Does your department have a special recruitment policy for men and women?"][
* "Do you think that there is a good market for the product and that it will sell well?"
* "Should the government spend less money on the military and more on education?"
* "Is this tool interesting and useful?"
Buttering-up is a type of a double-barreled question. It happens when one of the questions is a question that the questioned person will want to answer "yes" to, and another that the questioner hopes will be answered with the same "yes". For example, "Would you be a nice guy and lend me five bucks?"
Some questions may not be double-barreled but confusingly similar enough to a double-barreled question to result in similar issues. For example, the question "Should the organization reduce paperwork required of employees by hiring more administrators?" can be interpreted as composed of two questions: "Should the organization reduce paperwork required of employees?" and "Should the organization hire more administrators?"
Double-barreled questions have been asked by professionals, resulting in notable skewed media reports and research pieces. For example, ]Harris Poll
The Harris Poll (legal name: Harris Insights and Analytics) is an American market research and analytics company that has been tracking the sentiment, behaviors and motivations of American adults since 1963. In addition to the traditional consulti ...
used double-barreled questions in the 1980s, investigating the US public opinion
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.
Etymology
The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...
on Libya–United States relations
Libya–United States relations are the bilateral relations between the State of Libya and the United States of America. Relations are today cordial and cooperative, with particularly strong security cooperation only after the 2012 attack on th ...
, and American attitudes toward Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
.
U.S. trial usage
In a legal trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...
, a compound question may raise an objection, as the witness
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
may be unable to provide a clear answer to the inquiry.
One guide to trial practice offers the following example of a compound question:
Cross-examiner: As you approached the intersection, did you look down, change the radio station, and then look up and for the first time notice the oncoming car?
Opponent: Objection, compound question.
An example in practice has been cited in the case of ''Weise v. Rainville'' (1959) 173 CA2d 496, 506, where the objection to such a question was sustained because such a question "raises the danger that the witness does not intend to reply to both questions" when answering "yes" to the compound question.[Tamarah Haet, Nancy Yuenger, ''California Trial Objections 2015'' (2015), §8, "Question Is Compound", pp. 113–114.] It may also be unclear to the court, jurors, or appellate bodies, what the witness intended in answering the question; and such a question may combine a request for relevant information with a request for information that is irrelevant or inadmissible. If the question is one for which the answer will not be harmful to the opposing attorney's case, then the attorney need not object at all; alternatively, the opposing attorney may object, and specify when objecting that he would not object to a rephrasing of the question into separate, non-compound parts.
Compound questions are most frequently asked during cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and m ...
.
In popular culture
On his album ''Mitch All Together
''Mitch All Together'' is stand-up comedian Mitch Hedberg's second comedy album. It is a recording of a performance at the Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from May 2003. The CD was packaged with a DVD of Hedberg's 1999 Comedy Centra ...
'', Mitch Hedberg
Mitchell Lee Hedberg (February 24, 1968 – March 30, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian known for his surreal humor and deadpan delivery. His comedy typically featured short, sometimes one-line jokes mixed with absurd elements and non se ...
jokes about a supposed double-barreled question on his health insurance form: "Have you ever used sugar or PCP?"
See also
* Complex question
* Fallacy of many questions
*Implicature
In pragmatics, a subdiscipline of linguistics, an implicature is something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed. Implicatures can aid in communicating more efficiently than by explicitly sayi ...
*Leading question
In common law systems that rely on testimony by witnesses, a leading question is a question that suggests a particular answer and contains information the examiner is looking to have confirmed. The use of leading questions in court to elicit test ...
*Loaded question
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 qu ...
*Mu (negative)
The Japanese and Korean term ' () or Chinese (), meaning "not have; without", is a key word in Buddhism, especially Zen traditions.
Etymology
The Old Chinese * () is cognate with the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *''ma'', meaning "not". This reconstru ...
*Persuasive definition
A persuasive definition is a form of stipulative definition which purports to describe the true or commonly accepted meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an uncommon or altered use, usually to support an argument for some view, or to cr ...
*Poisoning the well
Poisoning the well (or attempting to poison the well) is a type of informal fallacy where adverse information about a target is preemptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing something that the target pers ...
* Presupposition
*Self-refuting idea
A self-refuting idea or self-defeating idea is an idea or statement whose falsehood is a logical consequence of the act or situation of holding them to be true. Many ideas are called self-refuting by their detractors, and such accusations are ther ...
References
{{Fallacies
Relevance fallacies