<P> Aside from being an informal fallacy depending on usage , such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool : the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner 's agenda . The traditional example is the question `` Have you stopped beating your wife ? '' Whether the respondent answers yes or no , he will admit to having a wife and having beaten her at some time in the past . Thus , these facts are presupposed by the question , and in this case an entrapment , because it narrows the respondent to a single answer , and the fallacy of many questions has been committed . The fallacy relies upon context for its effect : the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious . Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious . Hence the same question may be loaded in one context , but not in the other . For example , the previous question would not be loaded if it were asked during a trial in which the defendant had already admitted to beating his wife . </P>
when did you stop beating your wife is an example of which logical fallacy
informal fallacy