Never heard of it before.
Answer a question with a question.
This method of answering questions with questions, in order to let the questioner realize that he can find the answer by reasoning (Socrates would say that the answer was in him all along), is called maieutics (the related adjective being maieutic)
It happens all the time. I could sometimes be mildly annoyed by not directly answering my inquiries.
Eg. you asked the customer how many he need, instead of answering the quantity he need, he asked back how many you can provide... so on so forth...
I did a little research regarding this topic.
Here are some opinions or definitions from the literature.
- Answering a question with a question helps evade uncomfortable topics.
- Maybe it's not so common these days, but there was a time when it just wouldn't have been considered polite (especially for a child) to answer a question with another question.
- In psychology, behavior of answering a question with a question can have multiple meanings. Does the person we ask the question do not understand us? Or does he understand but is trying to distract us because they does not have an answer? Or is they trying to save time? Or are they making fun of us? We should examine the psychology of it in more detail. There is no need to perceive this badly all the time. Sometimes it is normal for a person to suddenly respond with the question when stunned by a question.
But what are people really thinking about it?
Here are some people who feels loathsome about AQWAQ:
- I personally think, in my experience, it’s because they’re smart alecks who think they are smarter than what they really are because they either 1.) truly don’t know the answer or 2.) don’t want to give you a direct answer to “seem” smarter and “seem” like they know what they’re talking about, so they respond like a smart ass. I’ve never understood why people do it and frankly it’s irritating as hell, I’ve always been a direct straightforward guy so I don’t understand why people do that.
- Typically the “answer a question with a question” folk infuriate me lol. I'm a very cut to the chase kind of person and experience this often with insecure people. Obviously I'm polite to their faces but inside I'm thinking, god, what a circus freak, doing all those mental gymnastics, just answer the damn question OR don't, it's simple. People always asking “why"… zzz, talk about stagnant energy. Most questions when asked are very straightforward, so the fact that someone tries to figure out your motive or intent for asking a basic question is exhausting. Cut them off. Chill with some homies who arent so backward complex. They're busy doing mental backflips meanwhile you were just tryna have a simple conversation and find out a little more about the people in your presence. Most people suck at rejection when it's time to put forth an opinion. Low frequency alert. Dont play mind games with stupid people. It ain't worth it.
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It’s is pure ignorance and narcissism people!
They have absolutely no regard for your need or request for information and only concerned with how any response may be detrimental towards them.
There are those who refuse to do or give you anything (being answering the question) without first receiving .
Then you have the compulsive liars who need more info to tailor a story based on their assumptions of you.
Those simply hiding the truth
And those who simply believe they are above being questioned about anything at all. As if they are too perfect or too ‘Holy’ to entertain your curiosities.
I won’t deny , some people honestly need a bit more clarification to best answer you, though over 90% are simply wanting to manipulate a situation.
