Learning psychology from riddles: The case of stumpers

Maya Bar-Hillel, Tom Noah and Shane Frederick

Judgment and Decision Making, 2018, vol. 13, issue 1, 112-122

Abstract: Riddles can teach us psychology when we stop to consider the psychological principles that make them “work”. This paper studies a particular class of riddles that we call stumpers, and provides analysis of the various principles (some familiar, some novel) that inhibit most people from finding the correct solution – or any solution – even though they find the answers obvious ex post. We restrict our analysis to four stumpers, propose the psychological antecedents of each, and provide experimental support for our conjectures.

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:judgdm:v:13:y:2018:i:1:p:112-122_9

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