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ChristianKl comments on Open thread, Nov. 10 - Nov. 16, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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The point of the exercise is detecting bias. As such it's not important whether the answer to the question is important.
It doesn't work that way.
Imagine that you don't know much about homeopathy, but you do know that experts oppose it. Then someone asks you the question "The number of homeopathic cures of all types rejected by the FDA for not being effective is (much less than) (less than) (equal to) (greater than) (much greater than) the number of allopathic cancer cures."
If you approached this question out of context, you would think "I know that experts believe homeopathy isn't effective. The FDA uses experts. So experts probably rejected lots of homeopathic remedies."
If you approached this question in context, however, you would reason "I know that experts believe homeopathy isn't effective. But given the way this question is phrased, it's being asked by a homeopath. He's probably asking this question because it makes homeopathy look good, so this must be an unusual situation where experts' belief on homeopathy doesn't affect the answer, and he's falsely trying to imply that it does. So the FDA probably rejected few homeopathic remedies for being ineffective, but for some reason this doesn't reflect the belief of experts."
For instance, if most homeopathic treatments are not submitted to the FDA, they would not have a chance to reject them.
Actually, one of the sponsors of the act that created the FDA was a homeopath and he wrote in an exception for homeopathy, so homeopathic treatments don't have to prove they are safe and effective.
Also, keep note of who this question would falsely mark as biased. Someone who opposes homeopathy and correctly knows that experts also oppose homeopathy, who tries to reason the first way, would be marked down as biased, because he answered in a way favorable to his own position but contrary to the facts. Yet answering the first way doesn't mean bias, it just means he ignored the agenda of the person asking the question.