Are question marks in headlines manipulating you?
Bob Garfield: The question mark. Which absolves you of any responsibility for the fundamental ridiculousness of the story.
Craig Silverman: The question mark is actually a very serious issue. It’s been studied and it’s called an innuendo headline. So if you’re going to put kind of a claim or an an accusation in a headline, and you’re going to put a question mark on the end of it. The way that people read that headline is first they have to understand the claim, so they process that as true. Then after that, they add on the question mark, and so in most cases the lean towards believing it as true.
When you see anyone using a questionmark in a headline, remember to stop and remember that it’s lazy journalism at best and manipulation at worst.