2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
What does it mean to be original, creative and able to come up with truly extraordinary ideas? Find out for yourself with this puzzle.
So, the situation is as follows. You have a small candle, a box of pushpins, and a pack of matches. The task is to attach the candle to the wall so that the wax does not drip onto the floor.
How do you solve this problem?
One of the possible solutions looks like this. You need to shake the pushpins out of the box and use them to attach the boxes to the wall. And then put a candle on it.
If you solved a problem in exactly the same way or invented a very similar method, we have good news for you. But if you tried to attach the candle to the wall using buttons or decided to heat it up by melting wax and using it as glue … Well, the ideas look good, but they won't work (if you don't believe - check it out for yourself).
This test is widely used in psychology to assess the so-called functional fixation. This phenomenon was first described by Karl Duncker. Its essence is as follows: if the object has already been used in one way, then it is difficult to apply it in some other way.
For example, if you are used to using a paperclip only to connect sheets of paper, it will be difficult for you to guess that it can be straightened and used as a small piece of thin metal wire.
75% of people cannot find the correct answer to the candle riddle, and this shows how difficult it is for us to abandon the traditional scenario of the subject.
When a thing has a specific purpose, often used, we get so caught up in this scenario that we can hardly imagine another, even very suitable for the situation.
In this case, we are so used to thinking of the pushpin box as a container for these small items that we completely forget about another use case. After all, it can make a good candle holder!
If you managed to solve the problem, know that you are a creative and flexible person who successfully avoids the traps of consciousness and functional fixation.
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