I started a little social experiment with gummi bears by accident.
I recently brought a bag of gummi bears to work. When I arranged a few complete sets of all available flavours by colour as usual (a little OCD, I know ;-)), I asked a colleague who was sitting next to me: “Which is the odd one out?”
I didn’t ask out of interest, because I assumed she would agree with me on the answer to that question anyway. I guess I only wanted to show that beautiful pattern. But the surprising thing was: She didn’t agree with me and picked a completely different colour…
After asking more and more colleagues it got even more surprising: Most people not only picked different colours, but they often had a completely different reason for it!
I thought the answer was obvious but apparently it isn’t…
So, before you read what everyone has replied further below, first look at the following image and think for yourself (and reply in the comments, especially if it’s different):
Which is the odd one out? And why?
| Person | Colour | Reason | Had difficulties deciding |
|---|---|---|---|
| me | green | the pattern follows a gradient from red to white, green doesn’t fit into that gradient | no |
| MM | dark red or red | there should only be one kind of red | no |
| EB | dark red or white | it’s either the darkest or the lightest | yes |
| CL | white | white is not a colour | no |
| RL | white | white is not in the rainbow | no |
| RS | green | it doesn’t fit into the gradient | no |
| CH | white | it’s the only transparent one | yes |
| RD | white | it’s the only colour not in traffic lights, and it’s not in the prism (as it creates the prism, “it’s the prism bear” :D) | no |
| RT | green | it doesn’t fit into the gradient (he also tried to find the odd one out of the fruits those colours represent, but couldn’t find one) |
no |
| IJ | white | (I don’t remember what he said :() | yes |
| ES | dark red | just a feeling, doesn’t know why | no |
It’s also important to note that some people didn’t look at the colours at all and tried to find differences in shape or how they were positioned in my hand. Those people were mostly the ones who had trouble deciding on any colour.
So, where does this experiment lead to? What does it say about people? I don’t know!
Some people asked afterwards, what the correct answer was. Obviously, there is none!
Although, I can imagine there are some lessons to learn from this and psychologists or sociologist can deduce something from it!? (If anyone knows more, I’d love to hear about it.)
The only thing I have learned from this so far is: If you think something is obvious, it obviously isn’t! 😉