Why do people ask questions that they know the answer to?
Do you already have an answer to this question? You do, right? That’s a sign of growing up. Innocent kids ask questions and no matter how silly they are, they ask because they really don’t know the answer. Adults on the other hand have lost their innocence and you have to play the game to find out the ulterior motive or hidden agendas.Take this simple question that is circling daily in households across the globe; “Do I look fat in this XXX?” Boy, was that a loaded question or what? How about this one-”Is that what you really want to do?” Most questioner who posed this question already know the answer but want you to CHANGE your mind and do it differently. So many questions asked by those who already knew the answers.Human Resources are people who often ask questions they already knew the answers to. They just want YOUR answer. Interrogators are good at bomb blasting the usual suspect questions to satisfy their inquisitive instincts. Mothers asked questions just to confirm their suspicions. Polices asked questions for self incriminating evidences. Siblings asked questions for confessions as to “who ate the ears off my chocolate bunny?”Lewis Carroll posted this classical non question in Alice in the Wonderland: “What is a nice looking kid like you doing in a place like this?” Many questions are non questions that are leading questions with hidden agendas. See how many you can think of. Have fun.
Why do people like to answer questions when they have no clue what they are talking about?
A few thoughts on this: - The gamified aspects of Quora means that writers feel in competition with other writers for (meaningless) credits and (nearly meaningless) Top Writer status. This creates pressure to "be first" and cover as many questions as possible. - Sometimes writers feel an obligation to respond to an Ask-to-Answer request, even where they are not exceedingly qualified to do so. - Many times it takes someone who actually knows quite a lot about a subject to even realize that they are not an expert. That is, just because an answer makes clear a lack of full-on expertise does not necessarily mean it's not correct or backed up by a great deal of knowledge or experience. - Non-expert opinions can add value to many types of "soft" questions; unless the question is a math or physics problem it's often good to know that there are other perspectives.Finally, remember that Quora relies on community ranking of answers (through upvotes and downvotes) to surface the best content and suppress the worst. Participating in this process is the best way to minimize the impact of content you feel has no value.
Why do people ask questions that they already know the answer to? Is it that they need public validation or are they just insecure?
Let me speak for myself.I have asked one or two questions here just to get an opinion from some of the experts in the field (related to technology). However, the rest of the 200 questions I have asked - I have asked just for the sake of asking, to give people a participative platform to state their opinions and to ensure engagement on the website.Personally, if I had something seriously - I would never ask anyone whose credentials I wasn’t familiar with and someone whom I didn’t know personally. And if I have to take an important decision - the opinion that I ask will always be from the best professional I can afford or can get in touch with.For me Quora is a platform where I use to add value, take value and ensure I follow the rules to promote the website and ensure engagement.But then again this is me - don’t know about others.Loy Machedo
Never ask a question that you don't already know the answer to?
I know who someone would say this. And yes, it does sound like a lawyer thing. Hower, the point of asking a question is to learn the answer to a question you don't know the answer to. And to get clarification, and to hear different angles, and to discuss.
Why do so many people ask questions they already know the answer to on Quora?
They are creating an opportunity for you to show what you know. If you don’t understand that, Quora is going to be a frustrating experience for you.Quora is an infotainment website, where askers and answerers collaborate to create interesting content. Most of Quora’s traffic is casual readers, who browse that material and vote on it.Whether the person asking the question knows the answer has nothing to do with it.Thanks for the question!
Why do people instinctively want to answer questions they really don't know the answer to?
Some people confuse this site with a forum. In a forum it is OK to say 'I don't know but have you thought about X'. This is normal and as community manager for a forum, as long as they don't go too far off topic, I encourage this as it creates and fosters a good community. This is not a forum though, but a Q&A site and most people aren't that familiar with good examples of Q&A sites, because there aren't any. Most of them have a forum like quality and the ones that don't have poor content quality.The removal of flagging has exacerbated this issue as answers that don't answer the question can only be collapsed if they have enough downvotes or by an admin. In fact these answers can now easily become the top voted because the content is popular regardless of the context.Of course some people just like to hear the sound of their own voice and want to promote their own agenda and are looking for opportunities to do so.