I need a scientist....

Re: I figured it out.....

the ">>>>>" isnt part of the original test, will people please stop saying that the ">" symbol is responsible for the effect? Recently I performed this test on a psychology class, to see what the results would be, and 4 out of 7 replied with "carrot", it was entirly verbal, and anyays if they had wanted to use a symbol to envoke a subconcious respose, why not the "^" symbol, which school kids refer to as the "carrot"? the ">>>" in front of each question are an indication that this was forwarded many times, http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16877 has some explanations too. My favorite was "what if we all had the smae elementary school primer, where on page 6 was a definition of carrot?" but that one is most likly the most infeasible. It probably is phonetics if anything, or maybe a short cirsuit in our brains somewhere, or maybe a correlation where 6 letter words get filed under the number 6, who knows? all i do know is that the ">>>>" dont matter in this test.

 

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I was thinking a cucumber. But that's probably because my native language is Czech. The word vegetable, when translated to Czech, is something like "Green_Stuff" - that made me think about cucumber first.

 

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I thought of cucumber too! Interesting that a lot of us though that too. But I'm quite sure that the reason I thought of cucumber first was that just yesterday, I was looking at my garden and was amazed on how fast the cucumber vines are growing. It really has nothing to do with the number 6.

 

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Broccoli-Am I the only one? How many of us actually thought of Carrot? It seems like more thought of something else!

 

I asked 10 friends (all Americans) to think about vegetable without mentioning anything about the number 6. I'm convinced that the 6 has nothing to do with the fact that many Americans think about carrot(s) first when asked to think about vegetable. The result of my test supports it. 7 of these 10 people were thinking just about a single carrot, 1 about a plate with various vegetables (but when describing it, carrots were mentioned first), 1 thought about a cucumber and 1 about a broccoli.

 

Cucumber because I like cucumbers.

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i thought of squash. I don't like squash. But then again, i don't like ANY vegitables. Oh well. I'm different

 

I thought about several vegetables, then settled on cucumber (it sounds even funnier in Danish). Carrot never crossed my mind. Obviously, the answer to the question about the test is that the 98% carrot claim is false.

However, even if there were a statisitically significant preference for carrot, what would it show? Our brain works very much with associations, this is basic knowledge. So finding that there might be some, possibly illogical, associations between certain words and concepts is hardly ground-breaking news.

Hans

 

I thought of corn.

 

WOW THATS SO COOL

I actually said pea then carrot popped into my mind, is that good or bad _--_

 

One more for the tomatoes...Hell, I evidently do not even know the difference between fruits and vegetables.

Saying that this statistically does not work because most of the people in this forum did not come up with carrot is probably not accurate. The people who enjoy this type of forum are people who enjoy thinking things through. We enjoy the problems that others do not think about. This maybe what separates the 2% from the rest of the population.

I am not saying this is an accurate test either...just pondering.

- KitNyx

 

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I was thinking of a carrrot! I don't think it's the vegetable that's synonymous with the number though, rather it was the colour orange. My second thought was a pumpkin.

 

I thought of corn also.


I think part of the reason I thought of corn was because I do not like a whole lot of vegetables, but corn is my favorite. Actually, when I first saw the question about the name a vegetable or whatever, the first thing that popped in my head was the word fruit. I don't know.

 

hmm, I thought of tomatoes.

 

I used to love reading on Magic and Mind Reading. Never developed either skill very far but learned a lot. I'm going to talk logic here and explain the lack of real magic in this experiment. If you don't want to have the experience spoiled then don't read this.

This is the way I look at this test (i'm talking about the carrot quiz)

I think the phenom we are intended to experience is rooted in our basic pattern matching hunger. Humans constantly try to match things together in our heads. When what we see matches what we expect, everything is fine and dandy, and we don't even think about it.

Look around the room. When we recognize stuff it doesn't jump out but when something is new, different or matching something else we are thinking about-something it normally wouldn't match- then it comes to the front of our attention.

Millions of things happen and pass before our senses in our daily lives. Occasionally all of this processing will allow two threads to cross and we get an odd match. Someone calls when you are thinking about them. AMAZING. Really though, they almost always call when you Aren't thinking about them, and you think about them lots of times when they never call. But that one time when the pattern matched it just blew you away.

Where does this come from? Think of an antelope out on the plains. It looks and listens for anything that doesn't match it's known patterns. If it's a new noise, then there is an immediate response, it draws their attention and they try to match it. If there is a danger match they have to take off. But first they have to try to find the match. It's all basic responses to keep the antelope safe. Constantly analyzing sights, sounds, smells, - all your senses and matching them with known stuff is comforting. Anytime it's out of the ordinary it's going to draw your attention.

Now, how does this fit the carrot? Well, we could see that many of you were saying carrot - I did too. For every person who said carrot, their mind went WOW, that's Amazing! Totally thrilling - because it matched what was already in our mind. Now for the folks who didn't get a match, well..., no big deal. It didn't work for them. On to the next post.

So now you have almost half of the people who did the quiz said carrot and are amazed. The rest didn't notice and moved on. You have really pleased your audience. The carrot folks are still listening to you and are amazed. The ones who got the miss aren't even in the room anymore. But for the matched folks it was magic. Take a bow.

Did that make sense? I know the matching stuff could have been woven in better. My sample didn't fit quite right but it's late. Hope it made sense.

 

Sorry Handyman, that's twaddle. DeeCee explained only 2% come up with something other than carrot. Do you want to be lumped with the vast majority? Not if you are a non-carrot,as evidenced by the approximately 50% of posts for non-carrots..It's cleary those who did choose carrot who have moved to other threads in droves. Us cucumbers and the like have stayed to wallow in our distinction.

 

I got cucumber also!

Hmm vegetable - green - cucumber

 

Hmm can I call BS on this idea. Who made up the 98% carrot statistic.
Can I see the research paper.
*cough pseudoscience magazine article*

besides, apart from there being 6 letters in carrot, there can be no association.
Result can only come from carrot being commonly thought of vegetable.

What if I say, say the word "penis" as many times as possible in 15 seconds, then

think of a vegetable.
I predict 0% will answer broccoli.

 

98% of the times that the creator of the test took it he thought of carrot, thats probably why.

I first thought "Banana", no wait a vegetable; "cucumber"

 

I got tomato - not technically a vegatable.

i'd say the 98% thing was a statistic - so thats rubbish!

from the posts, i'd say 50% choose carrot, 30% choose cucumber, 15% choose tomato.
simply a matter of your choice of vegatbles you eat/buy on a regular basis.

the numbers were there to distract you from normal thoughts, like how nice your dinner was especially the carrots.

the test shows how easily you can be programmed
ie if you didn't say carrot your probably thinking your special.........right?
and if you thought carrot you probably became disapointed at not being special.

think of an aircraft.......
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think of a color......
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B 52 and BLUE (or green)

your only special if you thought mr mulligan and cerise

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