If you ask your significant other how you look in those jeans you just bought, part of you wants anhonestanswer, but the other is hoping for a glowing review.
Quite how different they would be will surely now be a matter for heated political debate - though anhonest economist would tell you we can never know the answer.
It was anhonest enough question, but I realised as soon as he began to answer that it was a tactless one, because it implied what he and his fellow astronauts were doing was pointless.