CrowdScience Do multiple choice questions make us biased?
8 snips
Feb 6, 2026 
Maria Konnikova, writer and psychologist who turned decision‑making research into poker success; Rachel Croson, economics professor who studies gambling behavior; Kit Yates, mathematical biologist who explains probability puzzles. They explore why people avoid option A, the middle‑option bias, Monty Hall and switching, the gambler’s fallacy versus hot hand, and how poker exposes our decision biases.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Middle Bias Skews Multiple-Choice Choices
- People show a strong middle bias, preferring B/C over A/D when guessing among options.
- Middle guesses often work in real-world uncertain estimates but fail when true randomness is required.
Pattern Hunting Makes Randomness Feel Wrong
- Our pattern-spotting brain evolved to detect structure, so we dislike apparent randomness.
- That makes 'A' feel non-random and unnatural in quiz answers even when choices are uniform.
Switch To Improve Monty Hall Odds
- In the Monty Hall setup, switching doors raises your win probability from 1/3 to 2/3.
- Use switching as a strategy because your initial pick is likely wrong two-thirds of the time.
