The Reasoning Test Psychologists Still Can't Explain
4/20/20261 hr 2 min
Why do almost all of us struggle with a simple reasoning test, yet get it right the moment it’s about a pint in a pub? This week, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens take on the Wason Selection Task, one of the most intensely studied problems in the history of psychology. They unpack why a rule involving letters and numbers can feel strangely difficult, while the exact same logic becomes immediate and instinctive when it’s about people, rules, and catching someone out. From counterexamples and conditional statements to confirmation bias and the limits of human reasoning, they reveal why we rarely look for what proves us wrong. Along the way, they tackle a bigger question: did reasoning evolve to uncover truth, or simply to help us get along?
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First 90 secondsMichael Stevens· Host0:01
Hey. Hello, and welcome to The Rest is Science. I am Michael Stevens.
Hannah Fry· Host0:04
And I am Hannah Fry.
Michael Stevens· Host0:06
And today, I really, really wanna talk about a task, a test that basically everyone fails. I have a hunch that you won't fail this test, Hannah. Um- Not so sure. But we'll see. We'll see. Let me give you some context first- Okay ... which I shouldn't normally do because in, in actual experiments where this task is given, people are just there to get their 10 bucks and go, and I think that if you hype it up and you tell people, "Ooh, you gotta really think about it," "Oh, it's so difficult," "Ooh, it's such a tricky one," then people will probably spend more time and get it right, okay?
Hannah Fry· Host0:45
Right.
Michael Stevens· Host0:45
We can talk about all of that later, but let's just dive right into it. This is a reasoning test, a very simple single question that involves four cards, that was devised in 1966 by Peter Cathcart Wason, and it is basically the test when it comes to studying the psychology of reason. All right? If you look into the history of our scientific study of human reasoning, you basically only find this test. The test is called the Wason selection task, and it was developed in 1966 by Peter Cathcart Wason. Now, today it has been called the most intensely researched single problem in the