You know they are lying...

[Sledman]

Questions that you ask even though you know the answer will be a lie.

We all ask these questions.

Examples:

How’s the Fishing?

Or

Does this outfit make me look fat?

About 8 times out of 10 the person is going to lie to us. We accept that and ask anyway.

Why? No really why?

Now stop that I’m serious.

Also accepting other examples with your explanation.

[Ozone]

Actually, I think that many times we WANT to hear the lie. It's what we're looking for. When you ask if an outfit makes you look fat, would you rather someone say "No, it's that huge gut and big butt that make you look fat"? I think we all want...... no, NEED reasurance of things some times, so we ask a question that we know someone won't be able to tell us the truth about... just a opinion..

Oh hey, how about questions we ask, but really don't want to know the answer of? How many times do you ask someone how it's going, or how they're doing? All you expect to hear is "fine", or "great". What if they gave you their true answer.... "well, my wife just yelled at me, my earlobe has a strange growth on it, and my eyebrow hurts..."?

[Ozone]

Actually, I think that many times we WANT to hear the lie. It's what we're looking for. When you ask if an outfit makes you look fat, would you rather someone say "No, it's that huge gut and big butt that make you look fat"? I think we all want...... no, NEED reasurance of things some times, so we ask a question that we know someone won't be able to tell us the truth about... just a opinion..

Oh hey, how about questions we ask, but really don't want to know the answer of? How many times do you ask someone how it's going, or how they're doing? All you expect to hear is "fine", or "great". What if they gave you their true answer.... "well, my wife just yelled at me, my earlobe has a strange growth on it, and my eyebrow hurts..."?

[tomndebb]

And our latest candidate to play the part of The Bellman: Ozone!

[Achernar]

"The curvature of a fuction Y is defined as (Y'² + 1) / Y''. As you can see, the curvature will always carry the same sign as the second derivative. The absolute value of the curvature is the reciprocal the radius of the circle which has second-order agreement with the graph of the function, at that point. Furthermore, a continuous second derivative implies a continuous value for the curvature, except at points where the second derivative is identically zero. At these points, there is no circle with second-order agreement, as the radius of curvature is infinite. There, the tangent line to the graph can be treated as a circle of infinite radius, as it shares second-order agreement with the function. Understand?"

[Drum God]

Acharnar, did you happen to wander into the wrong thread?

Or maybe "Understand?" is the question often answered with a lie. In that case, my answer is "Sure, I got it!"

[manhattan]

Survey-style questions such as this are well-suited to our new forum, In My Humble Opinion. I'll move the thread over there now for you.

Enjoy the new forum, and say "Hi!" to slythe for me!

[test edit. -manhattan]

[vandal]

Eh? Achernar? Is this a reponse to that math question over in GQ? If someone asks you if they look fat, is that your answer?

[psiquest]

I think it depends on the question, itself.

The example of "how's the fishing?" would be more of a conversation starter. Small talk. Nothing really important other than passing time.

The example of weight is a trick question. The truth is not the correct answer. The lie is the correct answer. We all want to hear that we're the sexiest being on the planet, even if we know damn well that our physical appearance scares animals and small children (and in some cases, adults, too). ;)

Ozone's example is a matter of being polite. They don't care how you are, they're just asking to be polite.

My favorite types of questions are those where the asker knows you have absolutely no way of knowing the answer, but they still ask... and then get annoyed when you tell them you don't know. Gotta love Moms. ;)

[Achernar]

Sorry for the confusion. That whole thing was a bunch of meaningless tripe, thrown in only to confuse the reader, and "Understand?" was supposed to be a question expecting a false answer. But if I'd just put "Understand?" it wouldn't've made much sense, would it've? It looks like it didn't make much sense anyway, but the OP did ask for examples of questions like this.

[DRY]

but one of the things that always gets me is when people ask you "How are you doing?" WHILE THEY'RE WALKING BY!

I mean, if your answer is anything but a one word utterance (you know they're expecting "good" or "fine"), they won't hear you, because they've already walked past you.

(Pit like rant)

I mean, for god's sake, if you really want to know how I'm doing, at least stop when you ask me!

[Rilchiam]

I never ask Mr. Rilch if something makes me look fat, or anything along those lines. IMHO, if I have doubts about how I look in something, I can't carry it off. Even if he thinks it looks good, I'm the one wearing it.

[matt_mcl]

In socioinguistics class, we discussed the four types of speech actions: constative, performative, ethical, and phatic. Phatic speech actions are ones which have no content but serve a purely social function. So you could argue that since saying "what a beautiful baby!" serves only a social function, it is a phatic sentence, has no content, and is therefore not a lie.

Or you could just take the position of the Talmud, which got around this problem by declaring all babies and all brides beautiful by definition.

[Myron Van Horowitzski]

DRY, as far as I've been able to determine, "How are you doing," or "How you doon," is not meant as a question, but only as a greeting.

[CalMeacham]

Achernar:

The expression in parentheses in our expression has to be raised to the 3/2 power. Just thought you should know.

Otherwise it makes you look fat.

[DRY]

DRY, as far as I've been able to determine, "How are you doing," or "How you doon," is not meant as a question, but only as a greeting.


I guess the problem is, when *I* ask it, I genuinely mean it as a question. And I do stop and listen to what they have to say.

[Rilchiam]

And then there's the classic parent question:

"What's going on in there?!"

Which can only be answered with:

"Nothing!"

[Danielinthewolvesden]

"wisdom is when you learn to NOT ask the question you really don't want to know the answer to". You may all quote me. :D

[Achernar]

Thanks, and I know. I guess you won't believe me, though, when I say that the fact that the question is flawed is exactly why you can expect a lie for the answer, would you? :)

[Snark]

Nine times out of ten, when I ask my Grandma, "How are you doing?", she'll give me a negative response and tell me exactly how badly she's doing, listing her ailments. I feel sorry for her, but I wish sometimes she would just for once say, "I'm fine, how are you?" I know she's going through a very hard time, though, so it's okay if she doesn't.

[Anti Pro]

"wisdom is when you learn to NOT ask the question you really don't want to know the answer to". You may all quote me. :D


You may now consider yourself as having been quoted! :D

[dpr]

And our latest candidate to play the part of The Bellman: Ozone!


Tomndeb: Have you got a baker yet? *volunteers* I knead the dough...

Myron: I thought "How YOU doin'" was a pick-up line (but then again maybe I've been watching too much Friends).

um... what was the OP again?

Feel free to answer honestly....

[wolfman]

I have to disagree with the implication that "hows the fishing" usually gets answered with a lie. In my experience it is always answered truthful(at least to a fellow fisher), if not directly. If it is going well, the guy usually says something modest like "having some luck today" and pointing to a stringer full of 18 inch rainbows, and if its going badly then they tell you so, usually with a suggestion for where they think it might be better. Causual weekend fishing is one of those great pastimes, where nobody really does it to impress people so you can have a truthful and utterly pointless conversation for 30 minutes with a complete stranger. Personally I attribute the honesty of the sport to the fact that few women fish :)

[dpr]

What about when you ask someone if they had a good time (particularly referring to a date). They won't necessarily lie but they'll always answer yes regardless of whether they did or not.

Same category or new genre?


__________________
He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late--
And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad--
He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state,
No materials were to be had.

[labdude]

Nine times out of ten, when I ask my Grandma, "How are you doing?", she'll give me a negative response and tell me exactly how badly she's doing, listing her ailments. I feel sorry for her, but I wish sometimes she would just for once say, "I'm fine, how are you?" I know she's going through a very hard time, though, so it's okay if she doesn't.




here's a hint. don't ask your grandmaw "how are you doing?"
She 90 years old and feels like crap most of the time. Instead make a positive statement like "Beautiful day today isn't it?" or "Did you see all the wonderful birds flying around outside?"


michael

[labdude]

Nine times out of ten, when I ask my Grandma, "How are you doing?", she'll give me a negative response and tell me exactly how badly she's doing, listing her ailments. I feel sorry for her, but I wish sometimes she would just for once say, "I'm fine, how are you?" I know she's going through a very hard time, though, so it's okay if she doesn't.




here's a hint. don't ask your grandmaw "how are you doing?"
She 90 years old and feels like crap most of the time. Instead make a positive statement like "Beautiful day today isn't it?" or "Did you see all the wonderful birds flying around outside?"


michael