Volunteers

[ughaibu]

Please answer the following questions:

1+5=?

2+4=?

3+3=?

4+2=?

5+1=?

Think of a vegetable, what is it?

 

There's a claim, widely circulated on the internet, that 98% of people answer "carrot". However, I have also read of a class of psychology students returning a figure of 57% and a sample returning 70% without the preliminary questions of addition. I have seen suggestions that the result is explained by the number of letters in "carrot" and by phonetic similarity of 'six' and 'sticks', however, the test is said to produce the same results in finnish.

As I'm in Japan I haven't much access to english speakers, the two I have tested said "carrot", so I intend to experiment with Japanese both in english and in japanese. So far my only test returned "pi-man" (green pepper).

Ideally I would like several volunteers to run the test in different languages, and in control groups both with and without the addition. Anyone interested?

[freeztar]

Carrot was the first thing to come to mind.

I'll try it out on some other folks.

[InfiniteNow]

cucumber... strawberries was a close second though. :doh:

[Jay-qu]

Carrot :phones:

[Boerseun]

Interesting! Will try it on some local Afrikaans vs. English people, see what shakes!

[Boerseun]

First English-speaker I tried it on got "Peas".

 

Oh well.

[DougF]

I answered "carrot" Interesting! :phones:

[InfiniteNow]

So, what'd you guys turn up?

[ughaibu]

So far the Japanese have only produced one carrot. Green pepper, potato and onion are all more popular but easy winner is tomato. I'll keep at it a little longer.

[Zythryn]

Cucumber here. Interesting experiment;)

[LaurieAG]

First English-speaker I tried it on got "Peas".

 

Oh well.

 

Hi Boerseun,

 

I just asked the question and got 'peas' too (was your answer the one given after they said 'I don't know').

[modest]

I asked 4 people

 

two without addition questions gave: 'tomato' and 'green beans'

two with addition gave: 'carrot' and 'salad' (yes the girl that said salad is an idiot)

 

//edit

I forgot, when I first read it I said carrot, but I think I may have seen the word in my peripheral vision further down in the message which may have contributed to that answer. Impossible for me to say for sure.

 

-modest

[Boerseun]

Hi Boerseun,

 

I just asked the question and got 'peas' too (was your answer the one given after they said 'I don't know').

Yep.

 

"Uhhh... I don't know, peas?"

[Jay-qu]

So is it more likely to give a 6 letter answer?

[theblackalchemist]

Potatoes :hihi::phones::cheer::)

[theblackalchemist]

Ok

since i m fluent in hindi,tamil

 

6 in tamil is "aaru"

when said fast it resembles "alu" which in hindi means potatoes

so thats how i got mine

TBA

[ughaibu]

Nice.

6 in japanese is 'roku', the nearest I can think of is broccoli, which I've yet to hear. Though, other than carrot, broccoli and cucumber appear (from the discussions I've read) to be the main contenders in english.