A paradox is a strange idea that opposes what is normally considered true in the light of general opinion, so paradoxes are mental figures that consist of using expressions or phrases that involve a contradiction, there are several types of paradoxes that refer to logic, infinity, probability, physics or geometry.
Many of these paradoxes appear in everyday life even if we are not always aware of them. One of these paradoxes is the Monty Hall dilemma.
- Monty Hall’s problem is a mathematical probability problem based on the American television contest.
- In the competition.
- The participant must choose a door of three.
- But all are closed.
- Behind a door is a price.
- A car.
- But behind the other two.
- The doors are two goats.
When the participant chooses a door, the presenter, who knows what is behind each door, opens one of the doors that the participant did not choose and a goat appears. It then gives the participant the ability to change the door they had chosen at the beginning.
In this situation, the participant has two options, change port or continue with the first choice he made Should the participant maintain his original choice or choose the other door?
Yes, there are differences, changing the initial choice would be the best option, at least statistically.
The probability of the participant choosing the door that hides the car at its first opportunity is 1/3, so the probability that the car is at one of the doors they did not choose is 2/3. When the presenter opens a door that has a goat, that door is no longer considered, so its probability becomes 0.
Although being 0, the probability of 2/3 goes to the door that I didn’t choose at the beginning and that it’s still closed, a common mistake is to think that both doors now have the same probability, 50% of having the car. The choice made by the participant at the beginning affects the door that the presenter opens afterwards, it is not a random event.
If the participant chooses the door containing the car in their first choice, then the presenter can open one or the other of the doors and, if the participant changes his mind, loses the car; on the contrary, if the participant chooses a door containing a goat at first, the presenter has the option to open only one door, the one with the other goat, in this case the remaining door is the one containing the car, and when changing the option, it would win.
In short, if he maintains his original choice, he wins if he initially chose the car (with a probability of 1/3), when moving, he wins if he initially chose one of the two goats (with a probability of 2/3 Therefore, the participant must change his choice if he wants to maximize the probability of winning the car.
Paradoxical thinking is about explaining how absurd some things seem obvious are. This thinking can help change people’s attitudes. If beliefs become ridiculous by using paradoxes that expose our beliefs as irrational and meaningless, we can reconsider or even change our own beliefs. in an example.
A group of Israeli scientists experimented in a small town known for their high voting rate to far-right options, and conducted a paradoxical thinking campaign with which they hoped that the views of the most radical would moderate.
For six weeks, they sent the city’s neighbors to the campaign, which consisted of street signs, promotional items such as balloons, clips and T-shirts, as well as advertisements and videos on the web. ideas and phrases like “Without him, would we never be fair?”For justice to be done, do we probably need a conflict? and “For heroes, we probably need conflict. “The videos offered similar messages with related images.
After the campaign, they conducted surveys to find out what people think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The results of the surveys of the inhabitants of the commune where the campaign took place were compared with the responses of people residing elsewhere who were not exposed to the camp.
The people who conducted these surveys never knew they were part of a psychological experience, the results showed that the perception of the conflict was similar in all but one group, those who supported the far right and who had been exposed to the campaign showed a decrease in their attitude of supporting conflict over time.
Intervention through paradoxical thoughts influenced the beliefs and attitudes of right-wing participants, who expressed less support for aggressive policies, as well as greater support for conciliation policies. Reducing people’s ideas to absurdity reduces war effort.
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