![[rss]](http://thelearner.com/wp-content/themes/k2_1.0.3/images/feed.png)
By Hugo Mercier in Social by Design, Psychology Today
Reasoning is funny. Not the act of reasoning-although it can also be fun-but the cognitive skill that allows us to figure out math problems and decide what computer to buy. We can agree that reasoning is responsible, at least in part, for some of the greatest achievements of humankind, from calculus to the International Space Station. Yet we should also agree that people can reason their way to asinine beliefs — we are poisoned by the souls of aliens dropped in volcanoes millions years ago – and disastrous decisions — Napoleon’s ‘invasion’ of Russia. And it’s not that some people are smart while others are dumb: Isaac Newton spent more time bent on alchemy than on mathematics and, for their many faults, neither L. Ron Hubbard nor Napoleon were dunces.
Psychologists interested in reasoning cannot expect to recreate such dramatic events as the creation of calculus or the decision to attack Russia in the lab. Instead, they must work with ‘toy models,’ simple problems that people can try to solve in less than half an hour before going back to their routine. The most commonly used of these problems is known as the Wason Selection Task — after its creator the pioneering psychologist Peter Wason. Many of you may already be familiar with it, but if you aren’t, you can try to solve the problem yourself – it’s laid out in figure one. Take your time.
