• 2021-04-14
    In 1966, Peter Wason devised the following four card selection task: You are shown a set of four cards placed on a table, each of which has a number on one side and a colored patch on the other side. Which card or cards must you turn over in order to test the truth of the hypothesis that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite side is red? (Take a moment to consider which cards should be turned over before moving on.) A common response is for people to turn over the 3 card, but very few people flip over the brown card even though it could invalidate the hypothesis in one step. Which heuristic or bias best explains this tendency?