Take the Rationality Test to determine your rational thinking style

post by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2016-12-09T23:10:00.251Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 16 comments

This is a link post for http://programs.clearerthinking.org/how_rational_are_you_really_take_the_test.html

Contents

16 comments

16 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by g_pepper · 2016-12-10T00:43:53.281Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Warning: the test requires that you enter your e-mail address to receive results, and does not warn you of this ahead of time.

Replies from: Lumifer
comment by Lumifer · 2016-12-10T05:49:03.979Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It does accept mailinator, though.

Replies from: g_pepper
comment by g_pepper · 2016-12-10T06:17:43.537Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks - I'd forgotten about mailinator, but I just now tried it and was able to get my results - even though I took the test a few hours ago, it still had the results so I did not have to retake the test.

The test worked well - I found the results to be quite accurate (or at least they were consistent with my own self-perception).

comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2016-12-09T23:17:47.728Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The test took me about 20 minutes.

comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2016-12-09T23:16:45.123Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Maybe you want to tell us about your result:

I'm a [pollid:1173]

My rationality score (the value where the median currently is 55) is [pollid:1174]

Replies from: Gunnar_Zarncke, RowanE
comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2016-12-14T21:40:27.748Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Have a look what the results look in another forum: http://personalitycafe.com/sps-temperament-forum-creators/620626-whats-your-thinking-style.html

Some of my colleagues also took the test. There were free spirits, detectives, executies but I was the only rationalist.

comment by RowanE · 2016-12-11T15:58:56.620Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

So, uh, are people honestly reporting that they got a "rationalist" result from this, or are they just thinking "well, I'm a rationalist, so..."?

Replies from: btrettel
comment by btrettel · 2016-12-11T16:54:13.770Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The test labeled me as a "rationalist".

comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2016-12-09T23:12:09.659Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It seems that the test is based on the CART (The Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking) rationality inventory.

Abstract:

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 2002 for work on judgment and decisionmaking tasks that are the operational measures of rational thought in cognitive science. Because assessments of intelligence (and similar tests of cognitive ability) are taken to be the quintessence of good thinking, it might be thought that such measures would serve as proxies for the assessment of rational thought. It is important to understand why such an assumption would be misplaced. It is often not recognized that rationality and intelligence (as traditionally defined) are two different things conceptually and empirically. Distinguishing between rationality and intelligence helps explain how people can be, at the same time, intelligent and irrational. Thus, individual differences in the cognitive skills that underlie rational thinking must be studied in their own right because intelligence tests do not explicitly assess rational thinking. In this article, I describe how my research group has worked to develop the first prototype of a comprehensive test of rational thought (the Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking).

Replies from: hashem-elassad
comment by Hashem ElAssad (hashem-elassad) · 2019-02-25T12:08:49.663Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Hi
Where can I take "The Comprehensive Assessment of Rational
Thinking" (CART)? This article http://www.keithstanovich.com/Site/Research_on_Reasoning_files/Stanovich_EdPsy_2016.pdf

talks about it, where is the actual assessment?

Replies from: jimrandomh
comment by jimrandomh · 2019-02-25T21:22:20.892Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I've tried to find a complete version of the test online, and haven't succeeded in finding one. But there are a decent quantity of sample questions, covering all the question types, in the appendix to his book "The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking".

comment by Quasar · 2016-12-13T19:23:53.392Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Interesting test but i think the questions "How many other causes of death aside from this one did you consider before you arrived at this conclusion?" and "How many weeks would you budget to write this paper?" can be answered in different rational ways.

1) I already know that smoke inhalation is the primary cause of fire deaths. For someone who doesn't know that, it can be rational to consider several options. But in my case it is enough to recall the aforementioned statitical fact and thus consider only one option to tell which cause of Bill's death will most likely turn out to be. (So i consider just one cause but according to the test i should consider many causes).

2) The average time of writing each of 3 previous papers is 3 weeks and minimum time is 2 weeks. The fourth paper is about the book i like, it is implied that now i have more thorough knowledge about the book than in previous cases which consequently means that i can devote less time to reading/research/thinking than i usually do. And since the minimum time previously was 2 weeks and in that case the paper was about less familiar book, i assume that writing the fourth paper (about more familiar book) will most likely take no more than 2 weeks. (So i would budget 2 weeks but according to the test i should budget 3 weeks).

What do you think, am i missing something?

Replies from: ChristianKl
comment by ChristianKl · 2016-12-13T20:43:15.826Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Ohg va zl pnfr vg vf rabhtu gb erpnyy gur nsberzragvbarq fgngvgvpny snpg naq guhf pbafvqre bayl bar bcgvba gb gryy juvpu pnhfr bs Ovyy'f qrngu jvyy zbfg yvxryl ghea bhg gb or. (Fb v pbafvqre whfg bar pnhfr ohg nppbeqvat gb gur grfg v fubhyq pbafvqre znal pnhfrf).

Vs lbh gnxr gur svefg nafjre gung pbzrf gb zvaq, jvgubhg purpxvat vg ntnvafg bgure nygreangvirf gung vaqvpngrf n pregnva guvaxvat fglyr. Va znal pnfrf jung'f zrnag ol engvbanyvgl vf n guvaxvat fglyr jurer bar dhrfgvbaf gur pnpurq gubhtug gung pbzrf hc naq qbrfa'g vzzrqvngryl tb sbe vg.

Juvyr znal crbcyr qb qvr bs fzbxr, abeznyyl sverzna ner fzneg rabhtu gb abg qvr qhr gb fzbxr. Nf n erfhyg V pbafvqrerq gur ulcbgurfvf gung gur sverzna jnf vzcnverq ol nabgure ernfba. V erwrpgrq gung ulcbgurfvf ohg gubhtug vg guebhtu.

V unq va zvaq gung gur sver yvxryl qbrfa'g xvyy ohg V fgvyy jrag guebhtu gur bcgvba va zl zvaq.

V fcrag fbzr gvzr guvaxvat nobhg jung fhofgnapr va gur fzbxr xvyyf gur sverzna.

Naq fvapr gur zvavzhz gvzr cerivbhfyl jnf 2 jrrxf naq va gung pnfr gur cncre jnf nobhg yrff snzvyvne obbx, v nffhzr gung jevgvat gur sbhegu cncre (nobhg zber snzvyvne obbx) jvyy zbfg yvxryl gnxr ab zber guna 2 jrrxf. (Fb v jbhyq ohqtrg 2 jrrxf ohg nppbeqvat gb gur grfg v fubhyq ohqtrg 3 jrrxf).

Gur trareny cynaavat snyynpl vaqvpngrf gung zbfg crbcyr qba'g ohqtrg rabhtu gvzr sbe gnfxf, ohg V nterr gung vg pna nyfb znxr frafr gb ohqtrg yrff gvzr vs lbh cersre gb jbex ba gvtugre qrnqyvarf.

comment by siIver · 2016-12-11T14:23:30.439Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Took the test -

Your ability to evaluate outside information and theories for accuracy. For example, the question you answered earlier about the fictional BacoNation fast food sandwich checked your Evidence Evaluation. The question reported that the BacoNutcase ad campaign produced a $16 million increase in BacoNation sales, but the sales of the sandwich had fluctuated by nearly as much in the recent past without an ad campaign. Since the connection between the ad campaign and the sales increase was dubious, the question awarded full points if you answered that the ads were only somewaht likely to have driven the sales up.

That just seems wrong. This was the data:

March: $55.0 million

April: $43.8 million

May: $59.4 million

June: $49.6 million

July: $46.1 million

August: $54.9 million

September: $44.5 million

October: $60.5 million

The a priori chance of ads increasing sales is high. Bayesian updating increases the chance quite significantly since the result is higher than any one in the past 7 months (albeit quasi-tied with May). How is it not very likely that the increase is due to the ads? Simply saying 'it fluctuated by this much before' seems to be misunderstanding Bayesian probability.

Replies from: ChristianKl
comment by ChristianKl · 2016-12-12T21:22:44.191Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I don't think there's any reason to write this in the clear without rot13.

comment by NatashaRostova · 2016-12-10T01:57:14.453Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

What is this, Less Wrong: Cosmos Edition?