Incrimination Through Innuendo

Abstract: Research by Wegner et al. (1981) suggests that incriminating innuendo in questions can negatively affect attitudes and opinions. Two preregistered studies ( N = 506) provide a close replication of Study 1 of Wegner et al., additionally testing whether question-innuendo effects are moderated by partisanship. Replicating the original findings of Wegner et al., questions insinuating something negative about a target person reduced favorable impressions of the target. Counter to the novel hypotheses that effects of incriminating questions would be reduced for political-ingroup targets and enhanced for political-outgroup targets, question-innuendo effects did not differ across target groups. The findings suggest that merely asking a question about a false proposition can influence public opinion in the absence of incorrect assertions that could be deemed misinformation.