What are the effects of a rhetorical question?

Answer 1

Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to think about what the (often obvious) answer to the question must be. :)

AND

Rhetorical questions make the audience think about an answer to the question but no response is needed. This makes the reader think of all the possible answers, which then becomes memorable to them.

Answer 2

Rhetoric is the art of convincing people verbally. Rhetorical questions are used in an argument when asking a question forces the listener to think of an argument that they might not otherwise have considered.

A well-constructed rhetorical question will both direct the listener's thoughts to a question they hadn't considered, and also have only one sensible answer, being the one the writer wanted.

Answer 3

so the reader can respond, such