Errors in social reasoning are a frequent occurrence these days, especially when they take place in the press the main purpose of which is to attract public attention. Not only do the errors in social reasoning contribute to misinforming the public, but they shape public opinions, which often results in stereotypes. Such a vast spreading of misinformation occurs due to people’s trust in the press and their sharing the information which they obtained from newspapers and magazines with their friends and relatives. For instance, a friend of mine has recently come across the heading in a local newspaper of approximately the following content: “The majority of our citizens are law-abiding: When asked if they evade taxes often, 97% of them said no”. This is an error in social reasoning which violates the measurement validity due to the interviewer’s asking a loaded question.
This incident can be regarded as a measurement error in social reasoning because it violates measurement validity. This kind of validity is violated if a person’s assumptions are based on self-measurements which are unreliable, if the interviewer has a certain effect on the interviewees making them unable to give correct answers to the question, or if the interviewer asks loaded questions that confuse the interviewees and have an effect on their reply. The measurement validity is violated because the researcher (interviewer, etc) uses fallacious methods of gathering data and draws erroneous conclusions on their basis.
In this case, a loaded question has caused an error in reasoning. A correspondent (or a researcher) has made an erroneous conclusion due to asking the public a confusing question, namely, “Do you evade taxes often?” This question is misleading for is already loaded with questionable presumption, which eventually results in giving the answer which the interviewer is expecting to hear. The keyword in this question is “often” which most of the respondents have probably missed when replying to the question. This has led to a false conclusion and the public’s beginning to consider itself as law-abiding.
This social reasoning was wrong because the question which the interviewer asked was also wrong. The question “Do you evade taxes often?” does not have a correct answer. At this, however, it leaves no other variants but for “Yes” and “No”. Thus, if a respondent replies “Yes” to this question, he/she admits that he/she violates the tax laws, which are fraught with serious consequences. This is why the respondent is likely to say “No”. Such a reply will have further limitations for a survey because it means that the taxes are evaded “not often”, not that they are paid regularly. This means that, apart from violating measurement validity, disconnects between concept and measurement also took place to some extent. This all has led the interviewer to an erroneous conclusion and resulted in misinforming the public.
Therefore, errors in social reasoning occur all the time and can be met not only in politics but in regular life as well. Quite often such errors may result in misinforming the public and changing public opinion. Thus, considering the example “The majority of our citizens are law-abiding: When asked if they evade taxes often, 97% of them said no” has shown that a loaded question has been asked, which has violated measurement validity due to improper measurement method used, as well as led to disconnects between concept and measurement, which resulted in a wrong conclusion and erroneous social reasoning.