Do you ask questions that you already know the answer to?

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RudolfsDad
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31 Jan 2008, 2:56 pm

My son frequently asks questions that I am *POSITIVE* he already knows the answer to. Do any of you do this? If so, why? I've never quite understood why he does this and I am curious.



31 Jan 2008, 2:57 pm

I do because I like to see what they are going to say.



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31 Jan 2008, 2:58 pm

Yep haha, and i love to see if their right or wrong. I also get a rise out of asking that same question like 10mins later to see their reaction haha.


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Helek_Aphel
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31 Jan 2008, 3:10 pm

I do ask questions that I already know the answer to.
Like the other two people so far, I want to see the response.



AdvenaIngenium
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31 Jan 2008, 3:24 pm

Sometimes, to see the response. It's always amusing to see if they will lie to me.



Mark198423
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31 Jan 2008, 3:31 pm

I do this on occasion but my mum (who I think is AS to a higher degree) does it almost constantly!
Not too sure why either of us do it but think it may be to fill conversational gaps!

RudolfsDad, your son may do it as he wants to talk to you but has nothing else to say?



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31 Jan 2008, 3:34 pm

I do it too. I ask something I know the answer so that instead of saying it myself, the person I converse with has to say what I have in mind.

That's how I go on about topics that
1. I'm sure won't be discussed otherwise and that
2. I'm not sure of whether it's bold/mean/not according to the situation and when
3. I want to make sure I am right (by having the other person following the same train of thought) and I do it with topics that
4. I'm sure I should know nothing about.

A different reason for out of context questions is also
5. I learned it makes people happy to give answers/know things, so that if you manipulate them into such a question-answer situation you know all about, they'll talk to you - and of course it make you feel very happy and safe having them answer whatever you already had in mind too!



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31 Jan 2008, 3:44 pm

My daughter does this and I find it annoying, but I don't know why she does it.

"Mommy, is it raining outside?" (when clearly, it is...)



momtanic
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31 Jan 2008, 3:52 pm

My son does this ALL the time! I tell him that he already knows the answer...then he says "tell me again" If I tell him again and I get a portion wrong, he corrects me. He also tells me that he wants me to say the answer just so that he can make sure that I know the answer (or that he wants to make sure what he knows is correct) It drives me crazzzzy sometimes but I think its also
a game for him.



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31 Jan 2008, 3:54 pm

I don't do that. It makes me look less intelligent, than I am, and I'm very self-conscious about that.


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tmad40blue
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31 Jan 2008, 4:04 pm

I ask questions that I know the answer to only to see if other people know the answer as well. You'd be surprised how many people have no idea whatsoever what E = mc^2 means.

Not to say I want to be a scientist or a mathematician. I hate math with a passion. >>



2ukenkerl
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31 Jan 2008, 4:37 pm

tmad40blue wrote:
I ask questions that I know the answer to only to see if other people know the answer as well. You'd be surprised how many people have no idea whatsoever what E = mc^2 means.

Not to say I want to be a scientist or a mathematician. I hate math with a passion. >>


Then again, mass times such a LARGE number will magnify even a very small error to be horrendous, and the speed of light is SO fast, that who could really measure it? Maybe Energy equals Mass times the speed of light CUBED! :lol: Just something to think about!

After all, squared or cubed, it is a LOT of energy.



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31 Jan 2008, 5:06 pm

I do this not infrequently. There are some different aspects to why.

If the question is centered around factual information, I may be doing a double-check. Maybe I "know" the answer; but I've been known to have been wrong, at least once or twice in my life. If I ask a question and am expecting a certain factual answer, and i get a different one, that means it is something I need to do research on. I only ask questions like this of people whose answer I respect; idiots need not apply.

If the question is centered around another person's opinion, I may be looking for validation of what I think that other person's opinion is. In such cases, me "knowing" the answer is really just a guess, and I need to double check it. If my guess is incorrect, once again I need to do more research, in this case probably by talking more with the person and trying to figure out the error I made in my guess.

I will often ask questions where I am much less interested in the answer per se, than I am in the other person's response to my asking the question at all. I use this to probe other people, get to know them, understand what makes them tick, and so forth. I'm actually rather well known for doing this, and then telling the other person that I was more interested in their reaction, and what I thought of the reaction. I suppose it is a way of intellectually compensating for that interpersonal intuition that I seem to more or less lack.

And, I have to admit, sometimes I ask questions I already know the answer to just to root out people who don't know what the hell they're talking about. Particularly, I use this tactic against those types of people who have strong opinions on things they do not really understand. If I'm doing this, I'm often looking to put the smack down on someone who I believe is spouting BS; my aim is to make them spout even more BS so I can feed it right back to them.

And, in the vein of asking questions that one already knows the answer to, I often challenge people who I believe are doing this to me. I do this exactly like Magneto.

"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answers?" - Magneto, X-Men

Good fortune,

- Icarus loves to question things...


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Triangular_Trees
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31 Jan 2008, 5:10 pm

As a child, I felt it was a good way to start a conversation with someone



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31 Jan 2008, 5:12 pm

I do it sometyms cos i like 2 c how dey react.



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31 Jan 2008, 5:24 pm

I do it all the time to teachers.
It's a prompt to discuss the subject, which I generally know nothing about.


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