What is the difference between the に used here and で when specifying a reason for a future action?

Question

The following passage comes from a word game that's indirectly describing the story of Little Red Riding Hood (赤ずきん)

男に質問を繰り返す女｡ とある質問に男は態度を急変させ､ それ以降､ 質問されることはなくなった｡ 何があった?

I had the part

とある質問に男は態度を急変させ

explained to me by a Japanese speaker that the に in "とある質問に" is saying this particular question caused the sudden change in attitude

How does this usage of に to specify the cause of a action differ from で being used to specify the cause of an action, like in the following:

風邪で今日は休む

In my mind, if the original text was written using で instead of に (とある質問で男は...), it still looks correct to me and I don't understand a difference in nuance between the two either.

Answer 1

The use of this type of に is limited to the cause of a psychological reaction.

• When do you use に to indicate a cause or reason for something?
• に in コントロールに苦しまなくなった
• How does ''ni'' fit in here?

In your example, とある質問に and とある質問で are completely interchangeable, and I can feel no difference. In simpler and fixed phrases like ～に驚く and ～に怒る, に should be used.

休む is not a psychological reaction, so you cannot say 風邪に会社を休む.