/

If a baseball and a bat cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?

Solution

5 cents. System 1 thinking often leads to mistakes in this type of problem.

Next question

A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate—that boy is my son!” How is that possible?

Solution

The surgeon is the boy’s mother. This puzzle illustrates the persistence of gender discrimination.

Next question

In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

Solution

47 days. To answer correctly, you need to ignore your system 1 and use your system 2.

Next question

Alan is smart, hard-working, impulsive, stubborn and jealous.
Ben is jealous, stubborn, impulsive, hard-working and smart.
Who should you hire?

Solution

They are the same, but a priming effect often make people prefer the first candidate.

Next question

18-05-2020

B.E. GOOD! Podcast | Wendy Wood: Good Habits – from Context to Rewards

Research conducted by Wendy Wood, psychologist and worldwide expert in habits, tells us that nearly 43% of the time people are engaging in habits, repeating behaviors that they’ve done in the past, in the same context, while they’re thinking about something other than what they’re doing.

A few weeks ago, we spoke with Wendy Wood, the author of Good Habits, Bad Habits, the science of making positive changes that stick, where we unpack what she’s learned over her 30+ year career studying habits. 

And check out a sketchnote of the episode:

Credit: Adrien Liard

Let us know what you think about the episode on Twitter @BVANudgeUnit

Want to keep listening? Check out other episodes of the B.E. GOOD! Podcast.

Recent Headlines from the BVA Nudge Unit

17-01-23

B.E. GOOD! Podcast |  Vanessa Bohns | Master the Art of Influence

In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Vanessa Bohns, PhD, renowned social psychologist and author of the […]

03-11-22

B.E. GOOD! Podcast |  Eric J. Johnson | Outsmarting the Human Brain by Design

In this episode, we speak with Eric J. Johnson, the Director of the Center of Decision Sciences at Columbia University’s […]

29-07-22

B.E. GOOD! Podcast |  Bill von Hippel « From our past to The present »

In this episode, we speak with Professor Bill von Hippel from the University of Quensland about his latest book “The […]