are you in the special 2%??

[Beli]

At the end of this message, you are asked a question.

Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it.


Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.


This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give
it a try, then e-mail it around (including back to me) and you'll see how
many people you know fall into the same percentage as you. Be sure to put
in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. Yo u'll
understand what that means after you finish taking the test".


Now. just follow the instructions as quickly as possible.

Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the
previous one..

You do not ever need to write or remember the answers, just do it
using your mind.


You'll be surprised.



Start:


How much is:


15 + 6




3 + 56










89 + 2





12 + 53














75 + 26






25 + 52





63 + 32






I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's nearly over..


Come on, one more!







123 + 5























QUICK! THINK ABOUT A COLOR AND A TOOL!

[Beli]

You just thought about a red hammer ! , didn't you?



If this is not your answer, you are among 2% of people who have a
different, if not abnormal, mind.

98% of the folks would answer a red hammer while doing this
exercise.

[Loopus]

I'm abby - normal... I thought of a red wrench

[Furyous]

:S Blue Screwdriver :S

[Deadwood]

I thought of a red hammer.

Whats with that?:O :|

[Loopus]

I thought of a red hammer.

Whats with that?:O :|
ewwww a normal person!

[Repo Man ®]

The first words in my head were Blue Hammer...wtf...this is wild.

:S

[Beli]

orange screwdriver was my first thought. but then it switched to red hammer. and i was like WTF! freaky!

[Aeon]

black hammer

[Pimp Princess]

my hammer was pink.. so does that mean I'm alomst normal??

[nfc]

Blue Hammer and I couldn't be arsed with the Math questions :$

*edit* Miss Beli made me do the sums and I still got Blue Hammer :nana:

[Cheese on Toast]

i thought blue hammer. y did i think hammer??? i have no fuckin idea y i sed hammer lol. now i cant think of any other tools. what have u done to me mummy? :P

[the squid of despair]

Red shovel

[Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream]

i thought of a white bambi

its a color and bambi is definately a tool

[The Dude]

I guessed green hammer

[TraPStaR]

orange...
bandsaw...

no idea where ur getting red hammer...

[Grendel]

Green pipecutter.

[TJ60]

black saw

[Dymond]

my hammer was pink.. so does that mean I'm alomst normal??


LOL so was mine..Pink Sledgehammer

[Cheese on Toast]

i dont get this thread. y was red shovel chosen as tha smart guy answer? what was tha numbers for? a diversion? when will i see my mummy?

love u mummy kisses :hidey:

[hoos]

i dont get this thread. y was red shovel chosen as tha smart guy answer? what was tha numbers for? a diversion? when will i see my mummy?

love u mummy kisses :hidey:

Red is a color that the brain associates with doing math problems.

Hammer? I have no clue about that one.

[the squid of despair]

I think 98% of the people here are lying and actually picked red hammer.

[Flashman]

Mauve corkscrew

[SweetHoney]

Blue Hammer. *hmmm* Interesting.

[PiNkPaNtHeR22432323]

Mauve corkscrew


if you're a guy... you must be a gay hairdresser...


i thought blue hammer (Y)

[Flashman]

if you're a guy... you must be a gay hairdresser...

BINGO!

[tca]

i thought of purple monkey dishwashers :S

[Kloaked Spirit]

i dont get this thread. y was red shovel chosen as tha smart guy answer? what was tha numbers for? a diversion? when will i see my mummy?

love u mummy kisses :hidey:

It's all just a bunch of basic bullshit. It just so happens that "red" happens to be a common color that most people will think of when asked to pick a color unexpectedly. The same thing goes for "hammer" when you ask them to actually think of a tool at random. Therefore, there's a higher likelihood of being correct when you assume they thought up of red hammer. If I were to say pick a color and an animal, and then said "you thought up of red dog," that would not make me special, although it would make me correct for some people.

The 2%/98% gimmick is only there to make people feel shocked and forward it on when the email magically guesses what combination they thought up, or to pass it on to be proud about how they're part of the 2%. I've yet to see anything that actually proves where the numbers came from.

[Cushion]

i thought of a red spanner and my bro a pink hammer lol

[Cheese on Toast]

ok ks, i see how gay this is now, just summin that took up 3mins of my life and for what? jack shit :P thanx mummy for fillin my mind up w/ shit. i need to go watch some porno ;)

[Beli]

here a link to a site about the test. http://www.scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2006/04/casual_fridays_turns_out_were.php
Or if you are to lazy here is part of it here
Last week's study generated plenty of interest: it was the fastest we've ever gotten 400 responses. The study was based on a claim by this web site that they could influence your thoughts with 98 percent accuracy using a simple math quiz. If you haven't tried it yet, unfortunately I'm going to spoil it for you right now: you're supposed to think of a red hammer.

We wanted to answer a few questions about the claim. First, 98 percent? Really? Having done a survey or two, I'd be impressed with a survey that could predict 98 percent of the responses to "what is 2 + 2?"

Second, to the extent that the "thought control" works, how does it work?

To try to find out, we created two different versions of the test. The first version attempted to duplicate the original test exactly (our graphics aren't quite as fancy, but we suspected that fancy graphics don't really influence the results).

The second version changed a few things. We used different math problems, and we also changed the text of the instructions. We changed the claim to suggest that participants would think of a "yellow screwdriver" instead of a red hammer.

You can see the first version here

You can see the second version here

So, were we able to influence people's thoughts? Take a look at the results:



Regardless of whether we claimed we were trying to cause people to think of a red hammer or a yellow screwdriver, only around 20 percent of respondents actually thought of a red hammer. This is clearly well short of the claimed 98 percent! Our respondents were just as likely to think of a blue hammer. Could the makers of the initial test simply have been lying?

Clearly they were at least guilty of stretching the truth. And, as many as 68 percent of respondents did think of either red or hammer. Perhaps they were relying on respondents to be impressed that half of their claim appeared to be true.

And what of our attempts to influence the results by changing the math problems and instructions? In our "yellow screwdriver" version we tried to come up with problems whose answers sounded a little like the words we were trying to evoke: the final problem, for example, resulted in an answer of 178, which, when you think about, sounds a little like "screwdriver." The following two graphs show the pattern of responses to the two versions of the tests:



Note that the results are nearly identical, no matter which version of the test was given: it couldn't have been the specific math problems that were motivating the responses -- since we used different math problems in each version, the problems couldn't be priming a response. Similarly, it doesn't appear that the specific instructions had anything to do with the response.

So why do so many people think of "red" and "hammer"? I think part of the answer might come from this study from the Cognitive Daily archives. Adults tend to associate the color red with anger. Being asked to do a series of pointless arithmetic problems in your head may also make you angry, so this test might lead to a disproportionate "red" response. Otherwise, we might expect to see more "blue" responses. Indeed, our group did respond blue quite often -- nearly as often as they said red. Perhaps Cognitive Daily readers have more patience for arithmetic than the general population, so a more typical response might involve even more "red" answers.

What about "hammer"? My guess is that hammer is just the most commonly thought of tool -- it's almost the prototypical tool.

[Gringo]

My thought was Red Pick Axe :S

[Pot4life]

red jigsaw

[Cowboy From Hell]

blue hammer

[DnD]

my mommy tells me im special :P


and i was a blue screwdriver, of the phillips type to be exact.

[BodAgas]

blue hammer

[RedRum]

thats a trip when your high

[BK]

Red hammer for me to.:O some david blain shit right there.

[Antoper]

i thought about black cock

ahh shit!!!!!

[Treadon]

orange wrench

[Spork!!!]

!!!!!
Big red hammer/sledgehammer!