Test Yourself: How Rational are You?

[Sunstone]

This whole short article on human rationality is worth reading -- and the test is fun.

In general, how rational do you think most people are?

Do you think the world would overall be a better place, a worse place, or about the same as it is, if people were generally more rational?

Can rationality be improved with education?

 

[Papoon]

It was a stupid test designed to make me look like a fool. Whoever came up with the answers was a psychopathic smart a$$ and deserves a good whipping.

 

[JRMcC]

This whole short article on human rationality is worth reading -- and the test is fun.

In general, how rational do you think most people are?

Do you think the world would overall be a better place, a worse place, or about the same as it is, if people were generally more rational?

Can rationality be improved with education?

Dang the second card got me!

Anyway I think being rational results in good things a majority of the time. How rational are most people? I think most people have a tendency to be rational in certain ways and irrational in others. Just depends on who you are.

 

[JRMcC]

It was a stupid test designed to make me look like a fool. Whoever came up with the answers was a psychopathic smart a$$ and deserves a good whipping.

Let's GETIM

 

[Sunstone]

It was a stupid test designed to make me look like a fool. Whoever came up with the answers was a psychopathic smart a$$ and deserves a good whipping.

LOL! I love your wit in coming up with an irrational response to a test of rationality! I wouldn't worry about your results though -- you strike me as essentially rational.

 

[Papoon]

LOL! I love your wit in coming up with an irrational response to a test of rationality! I wouldn't worry about your results though -- you strike me as essentially rational.

Irrational ? You will regret that buddy. I just printed a copy of your avatar and every day I'm going to stick a pin in it. We'll see how %$#&%ing irrational you think I am then.

 

[DawudTalut]

......Can rationality be improved with education?

Peace be on you.
Only if it is linked with Revelation, Knowledge and Truth

 

[Augustus]

I spent ages looking at question 3 assuming it must be some kind of trick question.

Turns out it wasn't a trick question. That fooled me good

 

[psychoslice]

Most people are not rational, so yes it would help if they were more rational.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

In general, how rational do you think most people are?

Cognitive scientists, psychologists, and others have studies this for years. Of course, that's true of just about everything, so who cares? Well, in this case the interesting thing is that there exists a fairly large amount of pretty decent popular works on just how rational we are:
Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. HarperCollins.

Ariely, D. (2010). The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home.

Best, J. (2001). Damned Lies And Statistics: Untangling Numbers From The Media, Politicians, And Activists. University of California Press.

Damer, E. T. (2009). Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Gilovich, T. (1991). How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. Simon & Schuster.

Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., & Kahneman, D. (Eds.). (2002). Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge University Press.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Macmillan.

McRaney, D. (2011). You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself. Penguin.

McRaney, D. (2013). You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself. Penguin.

Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (1994). Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds. Wiley.
Sutherland, S. (1992). Irrationality. Pinter & Martin.

Logic doesn't come naturally to us (well, it does, but only in a very limited form). We see patterns that don't exist, infer causes without basis, make illogical inferences, etc., because often these "irrational" moves actually work and cut down on mental load as well as decision time. However, often enough our predilection towards illogical inference and irrational analysis are not shortcuts but problems.

Do you think the world would overall be a better place, a worse place, or about the same as it is, if people were generally more rational?

Can rationality be improved with education?

Yes to both.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I think the last paragraph of the article captures the crux of rationality: the values that we plug into our calculations of what is rational or irrational, the right or wrong answer.

For the 50-50 bet, for example, one has no way of knowing if the setup is actually fair--it's one of those too-good-to-be-true bar bet things that I learned to avoid early; I am risk averse and so even winning would not have a positive emotional (irrational? I did nothing to EARN this) payoff for me--it would also make me question my assumptions about the mystery woman, because I do not see this bet being consistent with her stated activism. In addition, even assuming it is indeed a fair flip of the coin, I personally also do not trust strangers to offer such a good deal. I am reminded of Guys and Dolls, where Sky Masterson tells the advice his father "staked" to him as he left home to find his fortune in the world: sometime, someone will show you an unopened deck of cards and bet you that the Jack of Diamonds will come out of the deck and spritz seltzer in your ear. "Do not take this bet, my son, for as sure as you are standing here, you will get seltzer in your ear."

 

[ThirtyThree]

I got them all correct. Then, I almost worship reason. That is, reason is extremely important to me, almost vital.

 

[ChristineES]

It would appear that I am very rational.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

This whole short article on human rationality is worth reading -- and the test is fun.

In general, how rational do you think most people are?

Do you think the world would overall be a better place, a worse place, or about the same as it is, if people were generally more rational?

Can rationality be improved with education?

Got the first two questions right. For the third question, I would assume that anyone offering such a ridiculous wager would probably be using a trick coin, so I think my answer is better than theirs regardless.

As to your question, I find most people are fairly rational, but not as rational as they think, and irrational in ways they are blind too. I think some aspects of the world would be better if people were generally more rational. However, I do not know whether other aspects would be worse or not, or whether being more rational would necessarily result in a decrease is some other aspect of human behavior/nature.