Have you ever come into contact with someone who avoids answering questions? Sadly, it can be challenging to get a clear answer from them.
Sometimes they act like they didn’t know a question was directed at them. However, there may be certain reasons why they would always avoid answering questions.
It is possible they are shy individuals and can’t express themselves properly. Or they do not have in-depth knowledge to answer the question.
Whichever the reason, it is never a pleasant experience when you are in need of a response and get avoidance instead.
Finding a word to characterize these personalities is not as difficult, though. In this article, we will be looking at words to describe someone who avoids answering questions.
12 Things To Call Someone Who Avoids Answering Questions
Below are 12 things you can call someone who avoids answering questions:
- Dictator
- Evader
- Dodger
- Equivocator
- Welcher
- Circumventor
- Obfuscator
- Avoider
- Prevaricator
- Subterfuge
- Waiver
- Balker
Deflector
A deflector is someone who avoids answering questions, especially those that concern them. They go straight into denial because they have the unwillingness to acknowledge facts.
Deflectors will use language such as “I never said that”, or “I don’t know where you got your information”, but they’re completely false.
As a result, I have nothing to do with what you are discussing.” They just reply, “I don’t know what you are talking about,” when you try to explain why their answer to your inquiry is crucial.
They attempt to deflect attention away from the topic by doing this.
Evader
Evader is a good word used to describe a person who avoids answering questions. When a question is introduced while conversing with an evasive individual, the conversation doesn’t get any good traction whatsoever.
Having a fragile ego, evasive people live in a sense of an alternate reality, and so they want to interpret and arrange an answer that is the actual truth in such a way that keeps their ego pumped up.
So when you come to an evasive person and say, “Well, I don’t agree with the results you got. Can we look back into the project?. They will get defensive and unresponsive.
This is prevalent with those in positions of power-politicians. They are frequently evasive when asked thrilling questions about accountability.
In order to make themselves or their party appear smarter and more informed than they actually are, they sidestep the subject by using only tangentially related facts and numbers.
Dodger
When someone is called a dodger, it entails purposefully avoiding answering a question. This can happen when the person being questioned either doesn’t know the answer and doesn’t want to look foolish or when they are being grilled or questioned in a dispute and don’t want to answer directly.
At times, when a dodger avoids giving answers, they employ the use of humor. By this, they introduce some form of comic or tease the intent of the question just to pull off their avoidance scheme.
The best example is found in politicians. Ask them a subject about which they don’t believe the audience will be supportive, and they will try to sidestep it by responding with a vaguely connected statement that they want you to hear.
They make an effort not to lie, but their tendency to sidestep questions says a lot about their true beliefs.
Equivocator
An equator is one who avoids answering questions by derailing from the subject being talked about.
For instance, let’s suppose that you have a difference or conflict, and you need some level of clarity on how to resolve it.
The first thing they do is deviate from the question by entering the invalidation mode. They want to make sure that you understand that you are wrong and misinformed.
They employ questions like, “How could you take it so personally?” or “You don’t understand what you’re saying.” They talk down your words, and your feelings.
Welcher
“Welcher” is a good way to indicate that someone is avoiding responding to a question. This phrase typically refers to inquiries that a person may have previously agreed to respond to.
When the truth is presented, they flinch and make an effort to avoid it. They avoid giving appropriate responses even when they claim to be up to the task.
Circumventor
A circumventor is someone who avoids giving answers to anyone who questions them. They particularly use the technique of “circular debates” to test your intellect.
People tend to talk in circles in order to avoid the topic at hand. You can choose to ask such a person a question like, “Can you defend your question with some viable evidence, ‘cause I am not buying it?”
Although it was a simple question, they make it more tedious and leave you thinking, “I can’t get through to this person.” And you begin to consider letting them go.
Obfuscator
An obfuscate is someone who gets away from answering the question they are being asked by using character assassination. They’re all about making the person who asked them a question look foolish.
An obfuscator, for instance, will stare at you with some scorn and say, “You are such a wimp” or “You are the biggest fool I have seen in a while,”
They throw those words at you solely because they know you are going to take the bait and discuss why your character is good. This also makes you deflect from the topic, and this turns out to be what they wanted.
Avoider
An avoider is someone who uses the tactic of silence to avoid giving answers to questions directed at them.
Another way to say this is that they make use of “communication shut down” to create uncomfortable silence or response. This works quite well because when they come up with this attitude, they are eventually told to just forget about it.
Many times, when they are asked questions, they just glare off into the distance by using their avoidance ploy. They no longer reply to your chats, emails, or calls, which is the way they stay off-topic.
Prevaricator
A prevaricator is someone who avoids answering questions. They use lies as a weapon to divert the focus of the conversion from them.
For instance, when you ask a prevaricator why they didn’t do their job excellently, you hear them say things like, “I couldn’t reach you on the phone when I called the other day to get some vital information.” Whereas, they never placed a call to reach you.
They just tell lies, so they do not give the real answer to a question when they are being asked.
Subterfuge
Subterfuge is the name given to someone who avoids answering questions. They deflect from giving an appropriate answer in a deceitful way.
This is often because they are guilty. They refuse to answer questions when they are asked because they do not want anyone to find out about their dirty little secrets.
Even when they know what information you need, they act confused like they don’t.
Waiver
A waiver is one who avoids answering questions by waving them off. When conversing with a waiver, you will realize how they easily talk things off.
They do this primarily to avoid giving and seeing questions. Wavers don’t talk in circles. When they are not interested in a conversation or do not intend to give an answer to a question, they wave it off.
You hear them say things like “can we switch to a more enlightening talk?” Alternatively, “can we change your boring talk to something else?”
They are never interested in providing answers to the masses’ questions and would dismiss them at every opportunity.
Balker
A balker is someone who avoids answering questions because they do not intend to comply with the person who asked them the question.
They are not open-minded, and since they would not accept what other people would have to say, they shut themselves up from answering them.
A baller feels that answering a question gives room for more conversions, which they are not ready to comply with. In order not to be overly concerned about what to say, they totally abstain from giving the appropriate answers to questions.
Conclusion
To wrap up this interesting and educative article, it is important that you seek to know why a person refuses to answer questions. Not everyone who refuses to answer questions is shy or naive.
Some of them just want to deviate from the subject matter by employing silence. The reason why you should know their intentions before ascribing any of these names to them is to avoid misconceptions.
When you tell someone that a colleague or friend is a prevaricator when they are just dodgers, you make them have a wrong view of them. On this note, ensure to use the nice listed names in the right context.
I believe you now have insight into what name to call a person and why they avoid answering questions.
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