Quick & curious · Numbers

Most people get this question about Linda wrong.

Black-and-white photo: clerks behind the counter of a bank, 1916
Photo: Frank R. Snyder (Miami University Libraries) · Public domain · Original

85%chose the wrong answer

Your guess

Linda, 31, bright, active against discrimination as a student. Which is more likely?

More about it

The Linda problem comes from Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman; in 1983 they published a detailed study of it. Ask instead: "100 people fit the description – how many are bank tellers, how many bank tellers and feminists?" and the share of wrong answers drops from 85 to about 20 per cent.