Do you know your thinking style? Find out with these three questions…
a) A notebook and pencil cost £1.10 in total. The notebook is £1 more than the pencil. How much does the pencil cost?
b) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 hammers, how long does it take 100 machines to make 100 hammers?
c) A forest is being ravaged by a tree-killing disease. Every day the area of dead trees doubles. If it takes 30 days for the disease to kill off the entire forest, how long does it take the disease to kill off half of the forest?
Done? Now check your answers at the bottom of the page. How did you do?
If you got two or more correct You have an analytic thinking style. You stop and think before figuring out the answer. People with this thinking style are more likely to attend a top university, less likely to cheat on tests or be religious, and more likely to be male (men and women get on average 1.5 and 1.0 answers correct respectively).
If you got 0 or 1 correct Oh dear, did you fall for the “obvious” trick answers of a) 10p, b) 100 minutes and c) 15 days? If so, you have an intuitive thinking style: you give the answer that just feels right. You have a tendency to let your heart rule your head. You are probably also an impatient person.
Psy-Q by Ben Ambridge is published by Profile Books at £8.99. To order a copy for £7.19, go to bookshop.theguardian.com
Answers
a) 5p (the notebook costs £1.05)
b) 5 minutes (the time it takes for x machines to make x hammers)
c) 29 days (on the 30th day, the area of dead trees doubles to cover the whole forest)
