Recognizing the assumption inside a loaded question

How can you tell when a question is loaded?

Check whether answering it requires accepting an assumption you dispute; challenge that premise explicitly.

A loaded question embeds an assumption that the respondent has not accepted. An ordinary yes-or-no answer can then appear to concede that assumption. The example of asking when someone stopped a wrongful behavior presumes that the behavior occurred in the first place. A useful response challenges that premise directly instead of choosing between the answers supplied by the question. An accusatory question is not automatically loaded, although the two often overlap.