Impatient Intelligence

Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?
(a) Yes
(b) No
(c) Can not be determined
***
 
If you chose (c) as the answer, you’re wrong! Here’s how, and also why:
And the answer is the first option. But over 80 [...]

Cognitive Illusions

Take a look at the picture below. Do you see spirals of green and blue colors embedded in pink and orange stripes? Would you believe me if I said that the green and blue are actually the same colors? Yes, they are identical! 

This blog post (by Phil Plait) on the Discovery Magazine explains the reason why [...]

Racial Segregation

In a very brief video, Tim Harford, an economist and author of two very interesting books: The Logic of Life and The Undercover Economist, cleverly explains how a mild preference (of not wanting to get outnumbered) of  individuals in a mixed neighborhood can result in extreme segregation.

“We, as individuals, might be [...]

Congnitive Biases and Nudge

We all have inherent biases that offset our judgements and deviates us from making right decisions in many situations. For example, the universal status quo bias (inertia) makes us stick to the default and resist changes. (How many of us have selected the auto insurance terms once and then hardly ever changed it?) Another example is the confirmation bias that [...]

Is Divorce Underrated?

I’ve been immensely enjoying reading The Logic of Life written by economist Tim Harford, whose earlier book, The Undercover Economist, was quite a good read as well.
There’s a chapter about the economics of marriage that particularly drew my attention. I always associated increasing divorce rates with increasing number of unhappy couples. Never before I thought [...]