I gave all my classes this riddle this week - 3 kids got the answer.

If you said - the detective walked into the room. In there room was a mechanic, a lawyer and a surgeon. The detective immediately knew which one to arrest, why?
Then I think most people would pause. But I think you are looking for a cryptic solution

It's still obvious there can only be one person who would be likely to be called Bob.

I do this quiz with 1st year under grads ....never fails to surprise me how many don't get it. I use it to illustrate the concept of unconscious bias

Michonnes* DH is with your DD - the man was the doctor ..

Then he decided the doctor was the father of the man who was his boy so technically he's right. Thinking outside the box.

I think the Bob one is confusing people because of how the first poster phrased it.

If you said - the detective walked into the room. In there room was a mechanic, a lawyer and a surgeon. The detective immediately knew which one to arrest, why?
Then I think most people would pause. But I think you are looking for a cryptic solution.

Much more powerful to me is that clip upthread where you ask kids to draw a fire fighter /surgeon and fighter pilot, and they all draw men.

Ds (14) looked at me as though I’d gone loopy & said because the Dr is his mum of course.

(However his latest Instagram post is a maths percentages question on Nobel Prize winners where he commented on women’s achievements not being recognised.

It’s also fairly obvious that the doctor in the OPs puzzle is the mum

That one is more subtle by the leading information of he, his, him. I heard it years ago and got it right but the re-written version where the accident victims are both female made me think it is a lesbian couple.

In the second one the professions are a red herring. I'm really struggling to see how anyone could come to a conclusion other than there was only 1 man in the room. The people in the room could have been a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker and Bob would still be easily identified.

Interesting to see so many people automatically assume a surgeon to be male. I work in healthcare so I'm well aware of the ratio of male to female doctors from consultant level down.
That said, I was still very impressed when playing a happy families card game with Ds1 to see that both parents of the "medicine" family were titled doctor, and not Dr medicine and Mrs medicine!

I agree with an earlier poster that younger children get it because they are less influenced by the gender stereotypes. When I first heard this (years ago) I was puzzled by it despite being an ardent feminist.

It’s also fairly obvious that the doctor in the OPs puzzle is the mum.

Bet you’d get some people saying stuff like “Bob must be the mechanic, he must have Bob embroidered on his overalls” or suchlike.

Absolutely. But if your unconscious bias is firmly telling you that a surgeon / mechanic / lawyer must be a man, then that might stop you from drawing the logical “Bob is the only man in the room” conclusion

I think someone would be a bit thick not to work that out. It's perfectly obvious Bob must be the only man in the room.

My dd yr6 got it right straightaway, and when I explained that lots of other children didn’t realise because they assumed the doc was a man she said “that’s stereotyping” clever girl
Made me think though if someone told me that would I have got it right? Not sure!

It's bleedin' obvious that to be able to identufy and arrest Bob there can only be 1 man and 2 women in the room.

Absolutely. But if your unconscious bias is firmly telling you that a surgeon / mechanic / lawyer must be a man, then that might stop you from drawing the logical “Bob is the only man in the room” conclusion.

Again just an assumption,but i guess PP didn't think at first that there would be women too in those professions so was confused how Bob was identified straight away from 3 men present?

Really? Is that the explanation? I couldn't see what point the poster was making. It's bleedin' obvious that to be able to identufy and arrest Bob there can only be 1 man and 2 women in the room.

Good grief- I'm the poster who doesn't call herself a feminist.

We effectiveness when I was at school ( in the late eighties). I was so angry with myself for not getting the answer that I have never forgotten it. Sad that nothing has really changed in thirty odd years !

Didnt even occur to me either. I'm female and in a 'typically male' job role and still just assumed the doctor was male.

In fact the way my mind worked was that the catch was the man/father in the accident was also a doctor and therefore couldn't operate because he was also a patient.

Just tried it on my 18 year old ds, 16 year old dd and my dh...only dh got it!

and the unconscious bias being that surgeons, lawyers, mechanics are automatically male

Eh ? Where is that coming from? The only bias is the assumption Bob is a man.

I’m guessing that the question was “how did the detective know which one was Bob?” And the answer is that only one of the surgeon / mechanic / lawyer is a man?
Bob being a name that’s almost unheard of for a woman

Yes - so where is the bias in assuming that in a room where you know someone is called Bob and there is one man and 2 woman that Bob is the man?

I can remember decades ago when I first read that riddle and I remember being stumped. I've progressed, but not as much as I would like.

There was a program on recently about classrooms being gender natural
They asked a class of 8 year olds to draw a mechanic magician etc and they were stereo typical answers

They changed the cloak rooms from boys/girls to just pupils etc

It was an interesting program and the results were excellent - even the kids bedrooms had a clear out of typical bit girl divide toys

They even look at gendered TShirts and rearranged the slogans - some parents had never thought of what messages they give to their kids

This is depressing - dh got it wrong.

DH didn't get it and I told him I was disappointed. He reminded me that when he'd told me his mum had been to the cardiologist yesterday, I had asked "what did he say?" and had to be told that the cardiologist is a woman.

Such a good riddle to illuminate bias!
Both my DH and uber feminists DD just failed to answer this correctly.

.... and the unconscious bias being that surgeons, lawyers, mechanics are automatically male.

NoFucksImAQueen

I'm ashamed to say that we were asked a similar riddle on my access course but with a detective overhearing "no bob" and then a gun shot. in the room was a surgeon a mechanic and a lawyer but he instantly arrested bob. I did not get the answer despite being an avid feminist

I’m guessing that the question was “how did the detective know which one was Bob?” And the answer is that only one of the surgeon / mechanic / lawyer is a man?
Bob being a name that’s almost unheard of for a woman.