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
- people
- numbers
- generated
- 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
- asks
- classic
- consistent
- generated
- hundreds
- increasing
- knowing
- numbers
- people
- peter
- propose
- psychologist
- rival
- rule
- set
- sets
- study
- successive
- tells
- test
- theories
- wason
- work