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.
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.
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.
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.
23-06-2020
It’s clear that the private sector has significant interest in behavioral science. A recent survey of behavioral teams found over 300 teams within companies, including Walmart, PepsiCo, and Morningstar, among other large firms. The implied promise of behavioral science—that a better understanding of human behavior can lead to better products, services, and decisions—is relevant and compelling to the private sector. And fortunately, we now have many success stories to share, involving customers, employees, and organizational decision-making.
Given the unmatched resources and reach of the private sector, there is clearly an opportunity to make a positive impact using behavioral science, both internally within companies and externally.
Continue reading on the Behavioral Scientist.
For more on how to nudge for good, get in touch.
21-01-22
This article was written by Richard Bordenave, CEO of BVA Nudge Consulting Singapore and Divya Radhakrishnan, an Applied Behavioural Scientist who works […]