If you dare to be wrong, sure!
See Betteridge's law of headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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No Stupid Questions
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From today's BBC front page:
- Why are thousands of people protesting in Turkey? NO!
- How often should you wash your feet? NO!
In the case of the first one, it's really a statement phrased as a question. The headline would more accurately be:
Here's why thousands of people are protesting in Turkey
In the case of the second the answer is still the negative / null case, i.e:
It doesn't really matter how often you wash your feet
No.
For news/article headlines, I estimate 90% are No, if they are Yes/No questions. The reason is, the author had nothing interesting/new to tell, but needs to bait people to visit the news site to make money.
However, this Wiki page has some actual studies about it, not just my personal estimate: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
Also, there's a new trend of adding "Here's why" to the end of headlines of really bad news articles.
βHereβs whyβ is basically a red flag for me. DO NOT READ THIS TRIPE!
"They thought they would be informed, then they read the headline"
Can they? Yes. Will they all be accurate? No.
Itβs a fun game, but Iβve seen enough counter examples that I donβt rely on it as a definitive guide.
I heard someone clarify that it's not so much answering with the word no, as it is dismissing the implication of the headline. In most cases that's a no, but it's easy enough to flip the meaning.
If the heading is avoiding making a statement, it's because the statement is false/unsupported.
No.
Does this headline count?
Because ironically the answer to the question is also likely the answer to most of said headlines:
Mostly no but here's the nuance...
Another reason why a title might use a question is to prevent spoilers. For example: Has Ferrari let down their fans again in the Chinese GP? (Yes)
Yes.
I think the joke got lost on many commenters here.
No.
Mostly No