A suggestive question is one that implies that a certain answer should be given in response,[1][2] or falsely presents a presupposition in the question as accepted fact.[3][4] Such a question distorts the memory thereby tricking the person into answering in a specific way that might or might not be true or consistent with their actual feelings, and can be deliberate or unintentional. For example, the phrasing "Don't you think this was wrong?" is more suggestive than "Do you think this was wrong?" despite the difference of only one word. The former may subtly pressure the respondent into responding "yes", whereas the latter is far more direct.[1] Repeated questions can make people think their first answer is wrong and lead them to change their answer, or it can cause people to continuously answer until the interrogator gets the exact response that they desire. The diction used by the interviewer can also be an influencing factor to the response given by the interrogated individual.
Experimental research by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has established that trying to answer such questions can create confabulation in eyewitnesses.[4] For example, participants in an experiment may all view the same video clip of a car crash. Participants are assigned at random in one of two groups. The participants in the first group are asked "How fast was the car moving when it passed by the stop sign?" The participants in the other group are asked a similar question that does not refer to a stop sign. Later, the participants from the first group are more likely to remember seeing a stop sign in the video clip, even though there was in fact no such sign,[3] raising serious questions about the validity of information elicited through poorly phrased questions during eyewitness testimony.
^ abCrisp, Richard D. (1957). Marketing research. Tata McGraw-Hill. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-07-463535-3.
^Copeland, James M. "Cross Examination in Extemp" (PDF). National Forensic League. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
^ abLoftus, Elizabeth F. (1996). Eyewitness testimony. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-28777-8.
^ ab"AS Psychology holah.co.uk". Retrieved 19 April 2010.
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