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I hear suggestions like this occasionally, and I don't get it. Apparently sentences like "Did you like the movie?", which sound to me like perfectly neutral qu

by ken 6y ago

I hear suggestions like this occasionally, and I don't get it. Apparently sentences like "Did you like the movie?", which sound to me like perfectly neutral questions, actually have a slant. Which way is this question leading me to answer? How can I tell? "Yes" and "No" seem equally acceptable answers here. I don't see how either one would "displease the asker", without knowing more about the situation.

uoaei 6y ago
The framing suggests that the asker did like the movie. It makes it harder to answer in the negative because some (most) folks have an instinct to achieve social consensus. I think it's a society-wide learned defense mechanism against tribalism in the presence of allies. Maybe a good test for these sorts of questions is to add the word "also" at the end.
- smichel17 6y ago
  I think it can lean either way depending on how you ask it ("Did you like the movie??"). However, regardless of leaning, the non-leaning version feels like it will generate more interesting responses, while "Did you like it?" is likely to elicit a "yes" or "no".
relaxing 6y ago
‘Like’ is a positive verb so it’s not a neutral question. More importantly it directs you to frame your reaction on a simple like-dislike axis, when the full spectrum of your opinion is probably more complex, and eliciting that yields a better conversation.
freepor 6y ago
The problem with the question is that it reduces an infinite dimensional space (all the things you could have thought about the movie) into a single scalar value. Your mind is likely to be preoccupied with performing that projection which is fundamentally uninteresting. It’s like asking “Is the pharmaceutical industry good or bad?” vs. “How should the pharmaceutical industry participate in society over the next 20 years?”
- lonelappde 6y ago
  It's ok to ask follow-up Why questions.
  - freepor 6y ago
    But the opening of a conversation influences the rest of it. It's like the old experiment about guessing the number of countries in Africa.
  - oxfeed65261 6y ago
    What do you think about follow-up questions?
NiloCK 6y ago
You are right that there are two acceptable answers to the question. How does this compare to the number of acceptable answers to the other question?
Swizec 6y ago
My favorite way to ask this question is “What did you (dis)like about the movie?” Makes the question more open ended and encourages the person to dig deep for answers and think critically.
orange8 6y ago
"Did you like the movie?" "Did you hate the movie?" The idea is that people are more comfortable answering yes to a yes/no question.
darkerside 6y ago
It's also overly simplistic and tends towards binary outcomes. Yes. No. Conversation over. It was a two hour movie, surely the answer is more complicated! Caveat: does not apply to all movies.
lol636363 6y ago
I am with you here, it seems perfectly neutral question to me. But this reminds me of a time when I went to movies with some younger family memeber and their friends. After the movie they asked each other if they loved the movie. To me love was really strong word. I wanted to say I liked it, not loved it but then I thought no need to be negative here. So I just said yes. So when people ask did you like the movie, many people subconsciously say yes even if they disliked it.

by ken 6y ago

uoaei 6y ago

The framing suggests that the asker did like the movie. It makes it harder to answer in the negative because some (most) folks have an instinct to achieve social consensus. I think it's a society-wide learned defense mechanism against tribalism in the presence of allies. Maybe a good test for these sorts of questions is to add the word "also" at the end.

smichel17 6y ago
I think it can lean either way depending on how you ask it ("Did you like the movie??"). However, regardless of leaning, the non-leaning version feels like it will generate more interesting responses, while "Did you like it?" is likely to elicit a "yes" or "no".

relaxing 6y ago

‘Like’ is a positive verb so it’s not a neutral question. More importantly it directs you to frame your reaction on a simple like-dislike axis, when the full spectrum of your opinion is probably more complex, and eliciting that yields a better conversation.

freepor 6y ago

The problem with the question is that it reduces an infinite dimensional space (all the things you could have thought about the movie) into a single scalar value. Your mind is likely to be preoccupied with performing that projection which is fundamentally uninteresting. It’s like asking “Is the pharmaceutical industry good or bad?” vs. “How should the pharmaceutical industry participate in society over the next 20 years?”

lonelappde 6y ago
It's ok to ask follow-up Why questions.
- freepor 6y ago
  But the opening of a conversation influences the rest of it. It's like the old experiment about guessing the number of countries in Africa.
- oxfeed65261 6y ago
  What do you think about follow-up questions?

NiloCK 6y ago

You are right that there are two acceptable answers to the question. How does this compare to the number of acceptable answers to the other question?

Swizec 6y ago

My favorite way to ask this question is “What did you (dis)like about the movie?” Makes the question more open ended and encourages the person to dig deep for answers and think critically.

orange8 6y ago

"Did you like the movie?" "Did you hate the movie?" The idea is that people are more comfortable answering yes to a yes/no question.

darkerside 6y ago

It's also overly simplistic and tends towards binary outcomes. Yes. No. Conversation over. It was a two hour movie, surely the answer is more complicated! Caveat: does not apply to all movies.

lol636363 6y ago

I am with you here, it seems perfectly neutral question to me. But this reminds me of a time when I went to movies with some younger family memeber and their friends. After the movie they asked each other if they loved the movie. To me love was really strong word. I wanted to say I liked it, not loved it but then I thought no need to be negative here. So I just said yes. So when people ask did you like the movie, many people subconsciously say yes even if they disliked it.