Learning psychology from riddles: The case of stumpers
Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2018, Vol 13, Issue 1
Abstract
Riddles can teach us psychology when we stop to consider the psychological principles that make them “work”. This paper studies a particular class of riddles that we call stumpers, and provides analysis of the various principles (some familiar, some novel) that inhibit most people from finding the correct solution – or any solution – even though they find the answers obvious ex post. We restrict our analysis to four stumpers, propose the psychological antecedents of each, and provide experimental support for our conjectures.
Authors and Affiliations
Maya Bar-Hillel, Tom Noah and Shane Frederick
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP678330
- DOI -
- Views 131
- Downloads 0
Using inferred probabilities to measure the accuracy of imprecise forecasts
Research on forecasting is effectively limited to forecasts that are expressed with clarity; which is to say that the forecasted event must be sufficiently well-defined so that it can be clearly resolved whether or not t...
Less cognitive conflict does not imply choice of the default option: Commentary on Kieslich and Hilbig (2014)
Kieslich and Hilbig (2014) employ a mouse-tracking technique to measure decision conflict in social dilemmas. They report that defectors exhibit more conflict than do cooperators. They infer that cooperation thus is the...
Maximizing as a predictor of job satisfaction and performance: A tale of three scales
Research on individual differences in maximizing (versus satisficing) has recently proliferated in the Judgment and Decision Making literature, and high scores on this construct have been linked to lower life satisfactio...
Methodological notes on model comparisons and strategy classification: A falsificationist proposition
Taking a falsificationist perspective, the present paper identifies two major shortcomings of existing approaches to comparative model evaluations in general and strategy classifications in particular. These are (1) fail...
A paycheck half-empty or half-full? Framing, fairness and progressive taxation
Taxation policy is driven by many factors, including public opinion, but little research has examined the strength and stability of the public’s taxation preferences. This paper demonstrates one way in which preferences...