The Psychopath Answer
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
January 26, 2011 at 7:58pm
So, as several of our most psychopathic members correctly guessed, she did it because she figured the hot guy would show up at that funeral, too.
A number of readers kindly sent me Snopes' debunking of this story. I figured it sounded fishy from the start. But I do find it interesting as a puzzle. It seems a certain category of people solve it right away, me included. I wonder what such people in fact do have in common, if not psychopathy?
- Comment (20)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments:
Jul '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I suspect that what people who solve this readily may have is a sense of where a story is going by recognizing memes inherit in it. These would be the same people who recognize the killer in some crime show because they're introduced briefly near the beginning for no apparent reason. In other words, they derive an answer based on the structure of the narrative, and ignore all the real world elements that would make the structure less interesting.
Either that, or they were really big fans of "Encyclopedia Brown" in elementary school.
May '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: So, as several of our most psychopathic members correctly guessed, she did it because she figured the hot guy would show up at that funeral, too ...
It seems a certain category of people solve it right away, me included. I wonder what such people in fact do have in common, if not psychopathy? ·
Psychological insight, some skill solving puzzles, and a deep-seated cynicism about human nature. (I solved it too, btw, but didn't post the answer because others had already done so.)
Aug '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Phew! I'd hate to imagine the harm this could have done to the self-esteem of psychopaths who got the answer wrong!
May '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Too much time watching soap operas or Turks.
Jul '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I have never been so happy to be stumped in my life.
Oct '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
As a fan of tv shows like CSI and Castle, stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and the entertaining tales by author Raymond Chandler, the answer was so obvious that I wonder about the intelligence and reasoning skills, not mental illness, of fellow Ricochet contributors.
Sep '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I was stumped. I just didn't occur to me. And I see why it is a test for psychopaths (although those who get this aren't necessarily psychos) I kept trying to find the reason she would kill her sister and it didn't occur to me that someone would kill to achieve a goal unconnected with the murder itself.
May '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't even try to figure things out when I'm watching a movie or TV show. The analytic part of my brain shuts down and I'm like a dog with its head out the window.
I love hidden picture games, though.
May '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I take offense that there's a right answer.
Sep '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I don't watch tv, I've never read Chandler and I read every Sherlock Holmes story ever written when I was 13. I'm 46. I'm old, not stupid.
Oct '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
All people have some serious wrinkles, appears to depend on time of day, mood and or opportunity... This outcome in question reminds one of the old Eastwood film, "Play Misty for Me." Ever viewed the film ?
Could be a little uncomfortable with this test in mind...
Jan '11
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Of course, the sister had an opportunity to save her own life. All she had to do was answer correctly her sibling's question "Who was that great guy I was talking to at Mom's funeral?"
Oct '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Pseudodionysius
I don't watch tv, I've never read Chandler and I read every Sherlock Holmes story ever written when I was 13. I'm 46. I'm old, not stupid. · Jan 26 at 1:01pm
Sorry if I offended. The answer was so blindingly obvious to me that I must be a Claire-diagnosed psycho. I try to be the "Good Kenneth" of Ricochet.
Sep '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Ken Sweeney
Pseudodionysius
I don't watch tv, I've never read Chandler and I read every Sherlock Holmes story ever written when I was 13. I'm 46. I'm old, not stupid. · Jan 26 at 1:01pm
Sorry if I offended. The answer was so blindingly obvious to me that I must be a Claire-diagnosed psycho. I try to be the "Good Kenneth" of Ricochet. · Jan 26 at 4:10pm
You're forgiven. Now go in peace my son and sin no more.
Re: The Psychopath Answer
I'm guessing it's less a psychopathy test than it is a "people who shout out the solution to TV-show murder mysteries fifteen minutes in" test.
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Ah, I see the three-legged dog is with me on this one. Always good. We can disguise our psychopathy the pretext of familiarity with detective fiction…
May '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
And the sister's answer: That was your father.
Dec '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Only if you assume that psychopaths are crummy at logic.
The guy came to a woman's funeral, ergo he'd come to her daughter's funeral too?
That's a logical leap on par with the "proof" of global warming. There is more CO2, and it is warmer, ergo CO2 causes warming.
Somewhere on the internet there is an excellent graph that illustrates the absurdity of reasoning in this fashion, which relates the global population of pirates to the global average temperature.
The graph clearly show that as the pirate population decreases, the global average temperature increases, ergo pirates fight global warming (or, I guess conversely, ninjas cause global warming).
Intelligence is a tool, how you use it is what matters. This test tells us nothing about either of those things.
Jul '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
The point of the solution is that the sister is murdered so nonchalantly to achieve such a petty end, and without any certainty of success. That the end could be achieved through any number of social strategies with a higher probability of success. A psychopath is not going to lean toward social manipulation, because the Sociopath Union would arrange a nasty accident.
The psychopaths are now mad that I wasted their time reading an explanation of such an obvious joke. Time for a new pseudonym?
I always thought the AGW crowd were total sociopaths anyway. Read the IPCC emails. Prove me wrong.
You knew that the whole support group thing was the first step toward unionization didn't you? Of course you did. Have another cookie.
Edited on January 27, 2011 at 7:40amSep '10
Re: The Psychopath Answer
Time for a new pseudonym?
Mine's taken.