psychic website!

[andyandy]

not sure if this is the right forum....but i guess it could be an example of how our mind is manipulated in subconscious ways....

anyway, just wanted to post it....:D

have a go!

http://www.caveofknowledge.com/experiments/experiment2a.htm

[Ryokan]

That's almost scary. I was thinking that! :p

[StewartP]

I WAS thinking of carrot, but remembered that I'd read here that when asked vegetable most people think carrot. http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=1804234#post1804234
I switched to marrow. I suppose the sums adding to 10 are to get your brain nice and relaxed so that "carrot" pops in as default answer.

BTW Why is carrot stuck in our western brains as default vegetable? If they did the same thing to a chinese person would it be bean sprout?

[Elizabeth I]

I switched to marrow.

Sorry to go off-topic here (I thought of beet, then switched to carrot for some reason - probably mind control) but I can't miss the opportunity to ask what a marrow is. I remember an Agatha Christie book where Hercule Poirot retired to grow vegetable marrows. I could never find it in my (admittedly American English) dictionaries. Yours, an Inquiring Mind Who Wants to Know

edited to correct punctuation

[Ryokan]

You're sitting in front of the greatest well of knowledge in history, the internet, and you have to ask?

I didn't know, either, but it took me just a few seconds to find out.

Squashes are four species of the genus Cucurbita, also called pumpkins and marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_%28fruit%29

[fuelair]

Specifically, large green summer squash, little taste, best stuffed, often with meat. Similar to zucchini.

[StewartP]

The marrows sitting in my garde-manger (a little french thrown in to irritate Rob Lister) are in fact zucchini (or courgette) they just got too big.

[TragicMonkey]

I WAS thinking of carrot, but remembered that I'd read here that when asked vegetable most people think carrot. http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=1804234#post1804234
I switched to marrow. I suppose the sums adding to 10 are to get your brain nice and relaxed so that "carrot" pops in as default answer.

BTW Why is carrot stuck in our western brains as default vegetable? If they did the same thing to a chinese person would it be bean sprout?

Is it really? I eat a lot of carrots. I eat them at lunch four times a week, actually. And yet the vegetable I thought of first was "artichoke".

Why? Because when asked for things, I tend to go alphabetically.

[steve s]

I thought of asparagus. Probably because I like asparagus.

The other two thought experiments aren't very impressive. "Think of a country that begins with 'D'." Wikipedia lists only four countries beginning with D. The most obvious is Denmark. The other three are Djibouti, Dominica, and Dominican Republic. Is it really so shocking that people would pick Denmark? And how many familiar animals other than elephant and eel, begin with an 'E'?

Steve s.

[TragicMonkey]

The third one was just stupid. "-gry" is not a common ending in English. "Hungry" and "angry" were the only two I could think of, so it was a fifty-fifty chance.

[wollery]

I was thinking of Pea. They got Denmark right, but then I had to think for several seconds to come up with that. Maybe because there are only 5 countries that begin with D (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/a-z_index/d.htm), Denmark being the only developed one. After Denmark I came up with Eagle (Brown), where they had Gray Elephant.

[FireGarden]

I was thinking of potato.

I was also expecting the first page to take me to one that said "you were thinking of the number 10."

Still, they advertised a few gadgets!

[DevilsAdvocate]

I was thinking of Pea. They got Denmark right, but then I had to think for several seconds to come up with that. Maybe because there are only 5 countries that begin with D (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/a-z_index/d.htm), Denmark being the only developed one. After Denmark I came up with Eagle (Brown), where they had Gray Elephant.I was thinking cucumber because I recently had sushi with cucumber in it. I figured to I should think of the first vegetable I could think of without it being something I just ate and came up with Corn.

I got Denmark-Eagle-Brown like you. After the first question I immediately though Denmark but then immediately after that realized I couldn't come up with a single other alternative.

[Tricky]

I thought of Terri Schiavo. But I guess she's an ex-vegetable.

[I less than three logic]

It failed for me, but I don't like carrots... nasty tasting things. ;)

I've seen a similar experiment involving math and tools, the most common tool picked is hammer. Supposedly it plays on your left and right hemisphere of the brain, doing the math gets your left going and reduces you creative ability that comes from the right. So most people pick the same common item because the right hemisphere goes into a standby mode. :)

[c4ts]

I was thinking of soybeans. Why carrots? 10 karat?

[TragicMonkey]

Perhaps it's the libido at work in the subconscious. Carrots are dreadfully phallic. If they had asked for fruit, I bet people would have answered "banana".

[c4ts]

Perhaps it's the libido at work in the subconscious. Carrots are dreadfully phallic. If they had asked for fruit, I bet people would have answered "banana".

Or is it because your screen name has "Monkey" in it?

[rachaella]

Maybe because there are only 5 countries that begin with D (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/a-z_index/d.htm),

I actually thought of Democratic Republic of Congo. And ended up trying to think of a fruit starting with 'h'. Went with huckleberries.

[wollery]

Supposedly it plays on your left and right hemisphere of the brain, doing the math gets your left going and reduces you creative ability that comes from the right. So most people pick the same common item because the right hemisphere goes into a standby mode. :)That may explain why it went wrong for me, my brain hemisphere's are wired up weirdly.

[UserGoogol]

I said banana, and then realized that a banana is not a fruit, and then stumbled around for a bit in my head before I came to "potato." Perhaps if I had not stumbled, though.