Consider these four questions. You’ve seen headlines like these in your social media feeds:
- Who suffers more: Alzheimer’s patients or Alzheimer’s caregivers?
- What’s more important: presentation content or presentation delivery?
- Office work or remote work: which is better for productivity?
- Why would anyone need to go to college when they could just take online classes?
Media outlets that depend on advertising dollars often like to post false dilemma questions like these. They do it with the aim of “increasing engagement” or “starting conversations.”
A casual reader or viewer might not even care that deeply about the posed question. But once they’ve responded by picking a side – uh, oh!
They’ve entered a trap.
Once people answer one way or the other, they might feel as if they have to defend their position. Sometimes, they’ll even fight with people who selected the other side of the either-or equation.
You know what happens next. Fights draw crowds.
With one simple either-or question, the media outlet that posted the question used an agitation technique. Deliberately posing a false dilemma question to ‘increase engagement’ is propaganda.
Often, the intent is not to inform or educate. The true aim of the false dilemma question is to agitate, confuse, and/or polarize.
Keep your eye out for these kinds of questions. You’ll see and hear deliberate agitation techniques all the time.
Some polarizing questions are posed innocently, but most are deliberately designed to agitate. They create pointless fights and arguments. They prevent any kind of substantive progress.
Increased engagement? More like “increased agitation”.
And it’s not just media outlets who use this technique to cause fights or draw crowds. Sometimes, you’ll be presented with an either-or question in everyday work or personal situations.
Let’s say you’re presented with a false dilemma question in real life. Unlike social media, you can’t choose to not participate. How can you answer it without helping to create an unstable and contentious environment?
Sometimes, you can’t say nothing. You must respond. If so, you might like to try a classic, 2-step pivoting technique.
For example, let’s say a public speaking student asks me, in front of class:
“For our next class presentation, tell us. What’s more important: content or delivery?”
Since the student is asking an either-or question, I might use a pivot statement.
I might say, “I wouldn’t frame the question that way.”
Then, I say how I would frame it. Then, I answer that question.
And my answer? It’s almost never either-or. It’s almost always both-and.
For example, I might say,
“I wouldn’t frame the question that way. Content and delivery are both important, so you need to work on both. Don’t forget – you need to make a connection with your audience.”
Remember that two step process:
- Use the pivot phrase “I wouldn’t frame it that way” to politely reject an either-or, false dilemma scenario;
- Proceed with framing a both-and response.
Let’s see how this 2-step technique might work in a TV interview. Pretend a reporter asks a doctor:
“Who suffers more, Alzheimer’s caregivers or Alzheimer’s patients?”
The doctor might recognize the false dilemma from media training and say:
“I wouldn’t frame it that way, since both groups suffer in their own unique ways. Nor should we try to make suffering some sort of competition. Instead, I’d rather use my time here today to address what we can do to ease the suffering of both patients and their caregivers.”
Well, done, doctor!
And now, I’ll give you two brief exercises to try on your own. Now that you know to recognize a false dilemma question when you see one, practice answering this either-or question:
“Which scenario is better for productivity: office work or remote work?”
Try using the two-step technique to answer. (Here’s my take on the subject…no peeking until you’ve answered on your own!)
And now, here’s your last exercise. Answer this oft-asked question:
“Why would anyone need to go to college when they could just take online classes?”
Go ahead. Once again, formulate your own answer.
Here’s my 11 second pivot response to the Classroom v. Online learning question.
Learn to recognize and respond appropriately to inflammatory and polarizing questions. Life is seldom an either-or scenario.
Your life is bigger than “either-or”. Your life is almost always “both-and”.
Laura Bergells is a writer and instructor. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning. You can also find Laura on Twitter and at YouTube.