Wason selection task

The Wason selection task is like a game where you have to choose which card you want to flip over to see if you made the right choice.

Imagine there are four cards in front of you with numbers 2, 4, 6, and 8, and you are given a rule that if a card has an even number on one side, then it has the letter "E" on the other side. The cards can only have even numbers on one side or the letter "E" on the other side, and not both.

The task is to figure out which cards you need to flip over to check if the rule is being followed.

Now, here's the tricky part. Most people will choose to flip over the card with the number 6 and the card with the letter "E" because they think this will help them find out if the rule is being followed.

However, the correct answer is to flip over the card with the number 4 and the card with the letter "E". Why? Because if the card with the number 4 has the letter "E" on the other side, it means the rule is being followed. Similarly, if the card with the letter "E" has an even number on the other side, the rule is also being followed.

The Wason selection task is a famous psychological experiment because it shows how people tend to overlook evidence that does not support their initial assumptions. In this case, people assume that they need to look for cards with even numbers, and they overlook the fact that they also need to look for cards with the letter "E".