THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NEUTRAL QUESTION

When we received the assignment to write an ethics essay it took me back to my days at IBDP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Program). We discussed and analyzed many ethical topics. At this moment I’m reading an interesting book about the intricacies of the human mind. It is called “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, the author is well-known Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman. In his book he explains the theory of the two sides of the human brain, on the one hand the intuitive (fast) thinking part, and on the other hand the rational (slow) functioning part. He proceeds to show us the fallacy of our perception of being able to analyze objectively. It is well illustrated by the many examples. One particularly comes to mind. Eight judges were asked to review applications for parole. He shows how their decisions are influenced by how hungry the judges are. Just after a meal the approval rate spikes to over 60%, and just before a meal it is as low as 0%.

Am I also biased? Searching the internet for common types of bias in what we consider “normal” people led to the following four questions. Who are your three best friends? Do you exclude neighborhoods where you might live? Do you only date a certain type? Do you have a gay friend? I must admit that my answers to these questions indicated a certain bias, which I did not particularly like. My friends are predominantly white, well-educated and sporty. Most of my live I have lived in privileged neighborhoods, detached housing, readily available transportation, and virtually no crime. The question about my dates leads to comparable answer. Being straight I do not hang in gay circles, although the I do accept and respect the different orientation. So obviously I too am biased. Of course there are many explanations behind this phenomena, and it most definitely asks for conscious action. Then again back to the questions. These in their selves are steering.

It made me think of the question: “Is there such a thing as a neutral question”. Having a closer look at this statement forces us to look at the different components. “There is no such thing” means it does not exist. “Neutral” is defined as neither positive nor negative, not leading in any direction and without influence. The word “question” is used to ask for information. It originates from the Latin word “question”, which also means “seek”. A neutral question must be one that is not influenced by the person asking, it does not lead towards a certain direction. The complete statement claims that such a question does not exist.

Observations are the sensory experiences that form the basis of questions. These experiences can be visual or auditory, but also by taste or touch. To be able to ask a neutral question one must be able to observe without opinion, bias or prejudice, as this would influence the question asked. Nassim Taleb has written about the narrative fallacy (The Black Swan), which in short describes the way our minds always try to explain a sequence of observations or events. This may seem logical, but it does not mean that it is true. Take a look at the experiment with a frog. The scientist slaps his hand on the table beside the frog, which makes it leap forward. After surgically removing the hind legs the experiment is repeated, but the frog no longer leaps forward. The scientist concludes that removing the hind legs renders the frog deaf.

The appropriate knowledge question to ask is “Is it possible to observe without a bias?”

Our minds are built to try to make sense of the things and activities it sees, hears or experiences in whatever way. To make the world around us more manageable we make use of categories. This cannot be done without generalization, which is widely accepted. It is based on reasoning from long experience and observation. Many see stereotyping as a sort of generalization, which is definitely not the case; it is a biased assumption (no observation). According to the epistemic model (Wright 1951) the observer gains knowledge through several different ways. There are things we just know, so called innatism (Plato and Descartes opposing Locke’s idea of a blank slate at birth). Our other knowledge is gained through interpretation of observations by reasoning leading to conclusions and by inductive inferences. An example of the reasoned conclusions is ethics, which is the study of morals (right and wrong), is dependent on what happens next. Although this seems easy, it is nothing but. Think of the general accepted idea that one should not harm each other, there are several situations in which it is acceptable. When a rape can be avoided by doing harm to the attacker no one will argue against it. These general guidelines have do not always fit the situation. They have to be adjusted to individual situations. This system of judging is strongly dependent on the believes and experiences of the people making the call; opening up for different insights and biases. The system is furthermore restrained through the limitations of the language we use to describe the observation (they can vary between cultures, using a different language). Some cultures have descriptions or words for feelings and observation that do not exist in other cultures. The limited or different experience of the observers is yet another factor; the observations are influenced by earlier experience and knowledge. The last important factor is bias. Sometimes obvious, sometimes very hard to detect. A good example is the heuristic availability bias (Tversky and Kahneman), which means that people in general tend to rely on readily available resembling examples in one’s own mind, instead of examining the observation systematically.

This framework that constitutes the system for observations is seems not possible to formulate a question that is not influences by the limitations described above. To be able to ask a neutral question the observer has to be without interest in the answer; it should not matter to him or her which way the answer goes. By being the individual he or she is formed by experiences and observations he or she will never be able to bypass this influencing system, leading to the conclusion that the statement in the title is correct.

The difficulty with objective observation is well demonstrated in several Areas of Knowledge, i.e. history. In the book “Freaconomics” (Levitt and Dubner) a series of such examples are given, through reasoning they demonstrate the importance of asking the right question. One that demonstrates the influence of the way of questioning in particular is the search for the cause of the drop in crime rate in New York under the period of Giulliano. Running for major in a crime ridden city he promised the people of NY to solve this by increasing the number of policemen out in the streets. Indeed the crime rate went substantially down, and Giulliano was quick to take the credit. Many still believe this is a good solution and refer to Giulliano’s tactics (induced inference) when discussing the matter. The true cause was shown when a broader view was used and other states were examined. Also there was a significant decrease in crime rate. A plausible explanation was found in the legalization of abortion some 15 - 16 years earlier. The amount unwanted and neglected children dropped dramatically, and them being responsible for a big part of the crime numbers subsequently caused the fall in crime rate. This demonstrates that the observer is highly influenced by his or her own experience and knowledge. Giulliano had no knowledge or experience in the field of demographics and their influence on social phenomena over longer periods of time. This is a classic example of post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc (after this, therefore because of this), a fallacy like the example with the frog; albeit much clearer in the case of the frog. Although the cause was a different one from the obvious one, the question leading to the right answer still was biased; “Is there a connection between the passing of the abortion law and the diminishing crime rate in the following decades?” People have different and strong opinion about abortion. The answer to the question will be influenced by this preoccupation. Besides that according to the Pollyanna principle people favor a positive answer over a negative one (Boucher and Osgood).

Another Area of Knowledge with gives us a good example of biased observation is Human Sciences. Elizabeth Loftus did an investigation about false memory; she studied the phenomena of people recollecting experiences different from the way they happened or even remembered happening that did not even occur. A particular case she studied was about a rape victim. She was questioned by the police, who is supposedly in search of the truth without prejudice. They should ask unbiased neutral questions, which they did not. This resulted in a testimony in which the victim was convinced she recognized the perpetrator without any doubt.

Lofthus did some important research in which she investigated influence of questioning on the memory of an event. This is of major importance in police investigations. The subjects were shown a film of a car accident, and were asked either the question “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other” or “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other”. The answers were significantly different. Not only were the “smashing” cars going faster, they were also the only ones with broken glass. This demonstrates the major impact of a small nuance difference in a question. This was already indicated above where I wrote that language is a limiting factor in knowledge acquisition.

There are some who argue that there is such a thing as a neutral question. Two of them are Brenda Dervin and Patricia Dewdney (1986). According to them we can divide questions into three categories; closed questions, open questions and neutral questions, where a neutral question is a special form of an open question. Dervin is the first one to use the term “neutral questioning” (1981) to describe a specific communication technique. The technique investigated (1986) to help librarians to find out what a customer was looking for. As stated above a neutral question should be one where the one asking the question should not have an interest in the answer. The librarian has obviously an interest in the answer, as it is his or her goal to guide on the basis of the answer given. The article for 1986 poses some examples of neutral questions like; “What would you like to know about large corporations?” The question implies a specific knowledge and interest in large corporations. And furthermore the interest might not be in large corporation but in major corporations. This is an again an example where language is limiting and there influencing the question and answer.

The importance of a neutral question is clear. As shown above due to the system used we use to observe we will always be influenced by our own situation, experience and knowledge at the time, causing a bias. To observe without bias is therefore not possible.

One major implication of this fact is that in matters of great importance we should get a weighed opinion of several people and not only one person. He or she is after all always biased in some or other way. However realizing this, we should not forget that people are predictable irrational.

"Availability Heuristic." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic.

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Dervin, Brenda, and Patricia Dewdney. "Neutral Questioning: A New Approach to the Reference Interview." RQ 25.4 (1986): 506-13. PSU EDU. Web. 2015. http://test.scripts.psu.edu/users/j/m/jmd394/saw4/infoseek/infoseekingneutralquestioning.pdf.

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