Communication Skills : The Different Types Of Questions
- Open questions can get people to open up and talk.
- Disturbing questions can get people to take action.
- Leading questions can alter a persons memory!
In the last article you learnt about some of the reasons why asking questions are important in persuasion. In this article, we will look at the different types of questions you can ask.
Open Questions
Open questions are generally considered to be the most persuasive type of question. An open question requires a response that cannot be answered with one or two word answers.
For example, “What did you do yesterday?”, “What are your plans for next week?” or “How does this work?” are all open questions. In general, open questions start with “what”, “how” or “why”.
Open questions can get a person to talk and open up. When they do, they are likely to reveal information about themselves which you can use to your advantage.
You will often find that when you do get people to open up like this, they will provide you with lots of “free information”. This is simply extra information you did not specifically ask for.
Disadvantages Of Open Questions
Open questions are not perfect. All they do is get the other person to talk, and they don’t even guarantee that. For example, you can ask someone “what did you do yesterday” and they could reply “oh nothing really”.
This is quite an important point to make regarding persuasion as a whole. People will often not behave the way you would expect them too, so you should always be prepared to change your strategy and think quickly on your feet.
Closed Questions
Closed questions are those that require a one or two word answer. Although like open questions, people may behave unexpectedly and give long responses to your closed question.
Closed questions are most useful when drawing a conversation down to a close. You can use closed questions for example to narrow the focus of a conversation, and eventually pin that person into making a definite commitment/conclusion.
Closed questions can also be used to “fish” for interesting topics or issues to discuss should you feel you are running out of things to say, or simply wish to tailor your persuasion to better suite their character/interests.
Disturbing Questions
Whilst open and closed question certainly are useful in helping you to persuade a person, one of their main limitations is that don’t necessarily provoke people to change the way they think or the things they do.
Disturbing question however can provoke people into change. To use disturbing questions, you first have to find a certain problem or concern a person may have. These could include things such as money, health or relationships.
You then need to phrase your question in a way that will frighten or disturb that person, to make them sit up straight and think about the consequences of not doing what have proposed. By doing this, you actively shift their thinking and get them to want to change.
Leading Questions
Leading questions are another technique you can use to influence how a person thinks. A leading question is one that alters the way a person perceives a fact or event.
This was first demonstrated in an experiment where people were asked a series of questions after watching a car accident on film.
One group were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other. The second group was asked how fast the cars were going when they hit each other. And the final group were asked how fast the cars were going when they made contact.
The researchers found that the first group estimated the cars to be traveling at 40mph. The second group estimated the speed to be 34mph. And the last group 31mph. So just changing the way the question was asked, influenced how fast each group perceived the cars to be traveling.
What was even more surprising was when asked if they had seen the broken headlight, people were 3 times more likely to respond yes, than when asked if they had seen a broken headlight.
However there was in fact no broken headlight! This simple leading question altered their memory, and caused them to recall something that didn’t even happen. This is how powerful leading questions can be in influencing someone.
Rhetorical Questions
A rhetorical question is a question that you give the answer to by asking the question, and do not expect a response to.
For example, “do I look like I give a dam?”, “You know what I mean?” or “what do you think I am? Some kind of idiot?” are all rhetorical questions.
Rhetorical questions are used to engage your listener, and make them think about the obvious answer. Because you are engaging the listener, rhetorical questions are much more persuasive than direct statements.
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