4 Heads are Better Than 1
A Quick Game of Deduction
Most of us have heard the adage that 2 heads are better than 1.
Certainly during the course of my personal psychotherapy this has been proven to me over and over again. Not least of all my self deception, whether it be egoic identity, cognitive bias, or lazy heuristics are far more readily seen by my therapist than by myself.
As it turns out, even deductive reasoning is demonstrably more effective and accurate as a shared activity than by the action of an individual.
Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning is sometimes referred to as top-down logic. Deductive reasoning relies on making logical premises and basing a conclusion around those premises.
If the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
For example. Premise 1 - All dogs have ears. Premise 2 - Golden retrievers are dogs. Conclusion - Golden retrievers have ears.
Simple right? So lets play a quick game of deductive reasoning.
Wason Selection Task
The game is called the Wason Selection Task. It is a simple 4 card problem.
Below you will see a set of four cards placed on a table, each of which has a number on one side and a coloured patch on the other side.
The visible faces of the cards show 5, 8, red and blue.
The aim of the game: test the truth of the following proposition by turning over as few card(s) as possible:
The proposition: If a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red. Ture or False?
The rules of the game:
Decide which card(s) you must turn over to work out if the above proposition is true or false.
Turn over as few as possible - i.e. not just turn them all over.
Take your time and write down your answers. I will reveal the correct answer at the end (not an invitation to cheat!)
A little incentive: Less than 10% of individuals deduce the correct answer, are you one of them?
4 Heads Are Better Than 1
Have you already checked your answers and claimed the prize of genius? Or perhaps you are amongst the 90% of us that got it wrong?
It turns out that when 4 people in a group are given the same task, and told that they can work together to solve the problem the success rate leaps reliably to 80%. Not 40% but 80%, our collective capacity is more than the sum of its parts.
This test has been done thousands of times across large IQ and EQ ranges. The results are consistent. The intelligence of the individual makes little difference. The real power of deductive reasoning is unlocked when we work together.
Together We Achieve More
The essential takeaway from this is that deductive reasoning works as a result of dialogue, of interaction between minds. Even the most intelligent of us performs poorly when acting alone.
For deductive reasoning to function reliably it needs multi-perspective interaction. We need each other, to work together, to enter conversation, to employ dialogos.
The way that we test reality, deduce propositional truth, and share this within our intellectual, social, and cultural settings, is by working together. Together we can separate the signal from the noise.
Signal v Noise
Signal represents the sensory inputs or intellectual inferences that helps us make sense of the world. Noise is the information that interferes with how we make sense of the world.
Signal has significant overlap with noise and requires us to separate the two.
What’s more there is a lot of “noise” in the world today. Noise is amplified by the proliferation of information sources, poorly explored assumptions, honest mistakes, and self-serving agendas. It doesn’t matter whether noise is intentional or accidental we are better off when we can make sense of the world.
What our little game has shown us is that, in at least one area (deductive reasoning) we are better at making sense of the world by working together.
I will explore the notion of signal, noise, and sense-making in later posts. Along with other ways we can work together to improve our experience of reality and our ability to make sense of our lives.
Wason Solution
So here is the big reveal!!! You only have to turn over 2 cards.
Turn over the 8 card and the blue card.
The rule was “If the card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red.” Only a card with both an even number on one face and something other than red on the other face can invalidate this rule:
If the 3 card is red (or blue), that doesn’t violate the rule. The rule makes no claims about odd numbers. (Denying the antecedent)
If the 8 card is not red, it violates the rule. (Modus ponens)
If the red card is odd (or even), that doesn’t violate the rule. The red colour is not exclusive to even numbers. (Affirming the consequent)
If the blue card is even, it violates the rule. (Modus tollens)