Unfortunately, the way sentences are constructed in English this is a common way to phrase a question.
"Is it true you don't like cigars?" is a completely different question from "Do you like cigars?". The first question implies the asker has been given prior knowledge that they are looking to confirm. In some cases, the asker might already know with certainty that they don't like cigars, but they're looking to bring up the subject of cigars and that's their icebreaker. There's a lot of hidden information in that one short sentence.
It's a poorly constructed question yes, but the straightforward alternative isn't always a good alternative because that poorly constructed question isn't actually a question, It's a statement dressed up like a question for the sake of subtlety. So in actuality, the responder shouldn't answer yes or no. That's not the correct response to a statement. If the subtlety is lost on the responder even momentarily, they may answer yes or no, in the same manner that when someone says "happy birthday", I might mistakenly answer the same thing back to them as if they had wished me a good afternoon.
If someone says "Is it true you don't like cigars", the correct response is not "no", it's "that's correct".
"Is it true you don't like cigars?" is a completely different question from "Do you like cigars?". The first question implies the asker has been given prior knowledge that they are looking to confirm. In some cases, the asker might already know with certainty that they don't like cigars, but they're looking to bring up the subject of cigars and that's their icebreaker. There's a lot of hidden information in that one short sentence.
It's a poorly constructed question yes, but the straightforward alternative isn't always a good alternative because that poorly constructed question isn't actually a question, It's a statement dressed up like a question for the sake of subtlety. So in actuality, the responder shouldn't answer yes or no. That's not the correct response to a statement. If the subtlety is lost on the responder even momentarily, they may answer yes or no, in the same manner that when someone says "happy birthday", I might mistakenly answer the same thing back to them as if they had wished me a good afternoon.
If someone says "Is it true you don't like cigars", the correct response is not "no", it's "that's correct".