tell me this which do you find most convincing the ikea effect, the rhyme as reason effect,
or the frequency illusion?
is the ikea effect just arrows on the floor, is that what that is? just not being able to get
out of anywhere ever? is that prison? is that prison? it is prison. prison with tealights.
it may be better understood by saying things like if you make crab apple jelly, say,
or jam - in my case apricot jam i made last year it's just the best apricot jam there ever was
i know this it's a fact it's the best apricot jam anyone's ever tasted but i'm told that it's part
of the ikea effect in other words if you've made it yourself from your own ingredients
you just think it's better than anything else that you could buy in a shop or anything else
is that why people are really smug about their babies?
yes basically they are an ikea effect
[applause]
do you ever have any equivalent of that?
i'm fierce fond of a decent bowel movement
[laughter]
i would often call my wife and children in and...
look what daddy made!
you thought i was reading
that is preferable to if you're a fan of someone else's though isn't it?
i'm a huge fan of alan davis's bowel movement
well let's move on to the second in our list then which is the rhyme
as reason effect what do you think that can be about?
is that like um no 'pain no gain'
yes
or 'treat them mean keep them keen' to be another
oh like there's loads of alcohol ones isn't it like 'if you drink wine you'll be fine' and...
'beer you'll be queer'
only shots...
that did work didn't it Stephen
yeah yeah it worked on me
'only shots, you'll get the trots' that sort of thing. yeah, there's all the boozy ones
isn't there one with grape and grain?
yeah
'never the twain with...' no
they do seem to work in as much as if you suggest a kind of rhyming piece of advice to someone
and to another group of people you put the same sentiment that doesn't rhyme they'll
believe the rhyming one so for example they gave 'wealth makes health' to a group of people and
almost all of them agreed with it they then said 'financial success improves medical outcomes'
and they didn't agree at all despite it meaning the same thing,
so it shows there is a strange quality that a rhyming...
and also it's easier to remember as well so you're more likely to
pass it on to somebody else aren't you?
that's right, and it seems just to have some sort of authority or imprimatur that an ordinary phrase
doesn't it's also the keats heuristic because it's beautiful it must be true: beauty is truth
and truth beauty is the idea. you may remember o.j. simpson's defense lawyer johnny cochran
oh. it doesn't fit...
'if the glove doesn't fit you must acquit'
that's it yeah that seems to be one of the things that got o.j. ...
that's quite specific as well you can't use that like everyday, can you?
it's not going to come up a lot that one
it worked on the day though. 'you've got to be in it to win' yes
'points mean prizes', no, i'm not very good at this, no
'an apple a day' of course
'red light in the sky, shepherd's pie' no that's not...
'red sky at night, shepherd's delight'
the frequency illusion does that mean anything to you?
no
no reason why it should. when i use the word heuristic it may be that you didn't know the word
but it's quite likely that in a couple of days you might see it in a magazine or hear someone else
using it on the radio or television you go that's weird i only just heard that word for the first
time two days ago and now it keeps cropping up everywhere you ever had that experience
i was talking to someone about this it was richard osman because he was complaining about
people saying there's always tennis questions on pointless and the moment you think that there's
tennis questions on pointless if you see one you think well that completely reinforces everything
yes that's right. all these things are called a sort of cognitive bias
they push you into a way of thinking some different ways of...
so you can tell the most appalling lie if it rhymes or it's featured on qi
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