Psychohistorian comments on Pound of Feathers, Pound of Gold - Less Wrong

2 Post author: Annoyance 23 October 2009 05:48PM

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Comment author: Psychohistorian 23 October 2009 06:43:14PM 5 points [-]

Questions about a property rarely contain their own answers in a trivial way

I think this fact may explain most of the reaction; the answer is slipped into the question with a couple words that don't interrupt the flow. The questions is pointless, but we don't expect questions to be pointless, so we don't really hear it right or interpret it correctly, and we answer the question that would actually make sense.

Comment author: gwern 23 October 2009 07:51:29PM 0 points [-]

What is the question that makes sense? 'Does a cubic meter of feathers weigh more than a cubic meter of gold'? A cubic foot?

Comment author: Psychohistorian 24 October 2009 12:12:38AM 2 points [-]

It doesn't make sense because the answer is so obvious, no one is likely to genuinely ask for a comparison between the weight of the two objects. There's a definite "Duh" answer. By contrast, "Which is heavier, lead or mercury?" or "feathers or dry leaves?" would not (in most cases) prime a "duh" answer, so people listen the question more carefully.

I'll admit there's a lot more to it, but I think that our understanding of the question is influenced by how its meaning is processed. If we hear "heavier... gold... feathers" we give an automatic response; if we hear "heavier... lead... mercury" we don't give the same automatic response, since the answer is not automatic - I'm pretty sure it's lead, but I wouldn't wager a large sum of money on it at very low odds, which I would do with gold being heavier (by volume) than feathers.

Comment author: Annoyance 23 October 2009 07:51:04PM 0 points [-]

There's more to it, of course. Ask the question with substances that don't produce strong associations regarding "weight" (really, density), and people tend not to get it wrong no matter how much time pressure is involved.