The Monty Hall Problem is a counterintuitive statistics puzzle which comes from the gameshow Lets Make A Deal. Say there is a car behind one of three doors. A contestant is told to pick one out of three doors and one of the other doors not containing the car is eliminated. Now, without knowing what is behind their door, does the contestant stay with their door or swap to the other? Many think winning the car is still a 50-50 chance when in fact it is a 66-33 chance favoring the door that was not eliminated. The situation is basically the same as asking the question if the contestant wants to open their chosen door the other two doors instead? If presented with a problem such as this,it would always prove o be beneficial if doors are switched.
One of the many counterintuitive life lessons offered in this article by Quora is that our instinctive efforts to impress someone come off as desperate whereas the better outcome results from trying less. The same thing could be said for romantic relationships. Another counterintuitive lesson is the more a person learns, the less they know. When something is learned learn something, the horizons of the person who just learned something broaden so much that more questions are asked after the one which was just answered.
The marshmallow test was created to test a child’s ability to wait for a better reward than the one put in front of them. The hypothesis was to find out if a child is willing to resist temptation in order for a reward. It was either the child could eat a marshmallow given to them, or wait 15 minutes and get a 2nd marshmallow. Another scientist took the study a step further by giving the children a reason to either trust the researcher or deem them unreliable before given the 1st marshmallow. It was surprising to find that only one out of 14 kids who did not trust the researcher waited for the 2nd marshmallow. It shows how persuasion played more of a role in the study than their upbringing.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
Hey, Vinny
The Monty Hall Problem
You make the risky assumption the every reader recognizes the name Monty Hall, connects it to the game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” and further recalls that contestants were invited to choose their prizes by selecting from three doors. Without that knowledge and recollection, they won’t have a clue what you’re talking about, Vinny. You need to provide the background necessary for reader comprehension. When you revise, eliminate the second person “you” language too. Clarify what you mean by “it” in “it is still a 50-50 chance.” It’s also not clear from your summary that after the contestant chooses a door, he is given additional choices without being told anything about what hides behind the door he has chosen.
Life Lessons
May I make a suggestion (of the sort I make so often)?
Instead of:
Why not?:
The Marshmallow Test
Because you don’t explain the purpose of the first test thoroughly, we don’t entirely understand the point of the refinement, Vinny. You’re not required to explain that the findings were used to track its subjects future “life success,” but you should offer a conclusion of some kind to explain that the test had some sort of justification. The common tactic here would be to share the hypothesis.
On the other hand, you could simply compare the two tests closely to illustrate that the subjects were responding not only to the prospect of a future reward, but also to the likelihood that their patience would be honorably respected.
Revised
Regrade provided. —DSH
Monty Hall. Your explanation is still extremely confusing, even if we know the game.
Quora. “When something is learned learn something”? Why passive for “are asked” and “was answered”? Don’t you know who asked and answered? I dispute your conclusion that “the less they know.” They may understand their ignorance better, but they still know more, having learned something.
Marshmallow. Fifteen weeks and you’re still trying to put “a child” together with “them.” Don’t mix singular and plural. Please.
Regraded.