A loaded question is a form of complex question that contains a controversial Tacit assumption (e.g., a presumption of guilt).
Such questions may be used as a tool: the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner's agenda.[ The traditional example is the question "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Without further clarification, an answer of either yes or no suggests the respondent has beaten their wife at some time in the past. Thus, these facts are presupposed by the question, and in this case an entrapment, because it narrows the respondent to a single answer, and the fallacy of many questions has been committed.][ The fallacy relies upon context for its effect: the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious. Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious.][ Hence, the same question may be loaded in one context, but not in the other. For example, the previous question would not be loaded if it were asked during a trial in which the defendant had already admitted to beating his wife.][Douglas N. Walton, Informal logic: a handbook for critical argumentation, Cambridge University Press, 1989, , pp. 36–37 ]
This informal fallacy should be distinguished from that of begging the question,
Defense
A common way out of this argument is not to answer the question (e.g. with a simple 'yes' or 'no'), but to challenge the assumption behind the question. To use an earlier example, a good response to the question "Have you stopped beating your wife?" would be "I have never beaten my wife".
Historical examples
Diogenes Laërtius wrote a brief biography of the philosopher Menedemus in which he relates that:
For another example, the 2009 New Zealand child discipline referendum asked: "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?" Murray Edridge, of Barnardos New Zealand, criticized the question as "loaded and ambiguous" and claimed "the question presupposes that smacking is a part of good parental correction".
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