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Got the ball and bat one right, and the lily pad one. I must not be as smart as I hoped :-( I think it comes down to having a value system where you'd rather

Got the ball and bat one right, and the lily pad one. I must not be as smart as I hoped :-( I think it comes down to having a value system where you'd rather be wrong and corrected (even if you have to do it yourself), as opposed to always projecting yourself as"perfect". Once you accept you aren't perfect, its easier to work towards perfecting what you've got.

planetguy 14y ago
Ah, that's the author flattering the reader. If the author had picked a genuinely tricky example for the first one it would have turned many readers off. Of course a question like the old bat and ball one is ridiculously simple, after you've been warned that many people get it wrong and hence that you should probably stop and think for a few seconds before blurting out the first answer that pops into your head. Do it without that warning and it's easier to get it wrong.
- d2vid 14y ago
  This. I think many people don't think they are susceptible to these biases because every time they encounter one, it is in the context of reading about biases and thus they are primed to be on the lookout for trickiness. I guess "many people" includes me - I always thought I was good at these types of questions, maybe I'm not :(
- sageikosa 14y ago
  I sort of realized I was already primed for "gotchas"! Of course I can't sing my own praises without showing some bias, since the whole article was about bias.
- dllthomas 14y ago
  When I first encountered these, without the "it's going to be tricky" priming, I must admit I got the bat and ball one wrong until I revisited it. The lily pad one I got right with no deep thinking - my explanation is that experience working with bits primed me for treating "doubles" more correctly. That's post hoc and anecdotal, of course, so take it for whatever, but I thought it interesting...
moron 14y ago
Excellent point. Also, if you adopt that value system, you may be just as susceptible to making errors, but you will be slower to trust your own thoughts. In terms of the examples given, you may get the ball and bat thing wrong intuitively, but if you know not to trust your intuitive thought, you'll say "hang on, is that correct?" and switch to slow/analytical thinking to arrive at the correct answer. Maybe. Hopefully.
saraid216 14y ago
My thought process was approximately, "Ten cents! Wait, that's really stupid. Hold on. Mental algebra. Oh. Five cents." I catch myself like this all the time. It's a little depressing.

planetguy 14y ago

Ah, that's the author flattering the reader. If the author had picked a genuinely tricky example for the first one it would have turned many readers off. Of course a question like the old bat and ball one is ridiculously simple, after you've been warned that many people get it wrong and hence that you should probably stop and think for a few seconds before blurting out the first answer that pops into your head. Do it without that warning and it's easier to get it wrong.

d2vid 14y ago
This. I think many people don't think they are susceptible to these biases because every time they encounter one, it is in the context of reading about biases and thus they are primed to be on the lookout for trickiness. I guess "many people" includes me - I always thought I was good at these types of questions, maybe I'm not :(
sageikosa 14y ago
I sort of realized I was already primed for "gotchas"! Of course I can't sing my own praises without showing some bias, since the whole article was about bias.
dllthomas 14y ago
When I first encountered these, without the "it's going to be tricky" priming, I must admit I got the bat and ball one wrong until I revisited it. The lily pad one I got right with no deep thinking - my explanation is that experience working with bits primed me for treating "doubles" more correctly. That's post hoc and anecdotal, of course, so take it for whatever, but I thought it interesting...

moron 14y ago

Excellent point. Also, if you adopt that value system, you may be just as susceptible to making errors, but you will be slower to trust your own thoughts. In terms of the examples given, you may get the ball and bat thing wrong intuitively, but if you know not to trust your intuitive thought, you'll say "hang on, is that correct?" and switch to slow/analytical thinking to arrive at the correct answer. Maybe. Hopefully.

saraid216 14y ago

My thought process was approximately, "Ten cents! Wait, that's really stupid. Hold on. Mental algebra. Oh. Five cents." I catch myself like this all the time. It's a little depressing.