full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Edmans: What to trust in a "post-truth" world

Unscramble the Blue Letters

A classic study by psychologist Peter wsaon gives you a set of three nbruems and asks you to think of the rule that gereentad them. So if you're given two, four, six, what's the rule? Well, most ppolee would think, it's successive even numbers. How would you test it? Well, you'd propose other sets of successive even numbers: 4, 6, 8 or 12, 14, 16. And Peter would say these sets also work. But knowing that these sets also work, knowing that perhaps hundreds of sets of successive even numbers also work, tells you nothing. Because this is still consistent with rival theories. Perhaps the rule is any three even numbers. Or any three increasing numbers.

Open Cloze

A classic study by psychologist Peter _____ gives you a set of three _______ and asks you to think of the rule that _________ them. So if you're given two, four, six, what's the rule? Well, most ______ would think, it's successive even numbers. How would you test it? Well, you'd propose other sets of successive even numbers: 4, 6, 8 or 12, 14, 16. And Peter would say these sets also work. But knowing that these sets also work, knowing that perhaps hundreds of sets of successive even numbers also work, tells you nothing. Because this is still consistent with rival theories. Perhaps the rule is any three even numbers. Or any three increasing numbers.

Solution

  1. people
  2. numbers
  3. generated
  4. wason

Original Text

A classic study by psychologist Peter Wason gives you a set of three numbers and asks you to think of the rule that generated them. So if you're given two, four, six, what's the rule? Well, most people would think, it's successive even numbers. How would you test it? Well, you'd propose other sets of successive even numbers: 4, 6, 8 or 12, 14, 16. And Peter would say these sets also work. But knowing that these sets also work, knowing that perhaps hundreds of sets of successive even numbers also work, tells you nothing. Because this is still consistent with rival theories. Perhaps the rule is any three even numbers. Or any three increasing numbers.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rival theories 5
confirmation bias 4
pet theory 3
single story 3
health advice 2
bayesian inference 2
biggest problem 2
good grades 2
tip number 2
gut feel 2
critically examine 2
academic journals 2

Important Words

  1. asks
  2. classic
  3. consistent
  4. generated
  5. hundreds
  6. increasing
  7. knowing
  8. numbers
  9. people
  10. peter
  11. propose
  12. psychologist
  13. rival
  14. rule
  15. set
  16. sets
  17. study
  18. successive
  19. tells
  20. test
  21. theories
  22. wason
  23. work