DH just asked me this one - let's see what mumsnetters think.....

[RustyBear]

Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Which is more likely?

(a) Linda is a bank teller.
(b)Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.

cap.

clearly not my night.

Best return to something less taxing... like "Holby City"

(a) is right - for the reasons explained by fp, bran & CD

It's called the conjunction fallacy: a logical fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one.

I'm sure you really wanted to know that...

I got it right i just couldn't explian it

i got it right by accident actch

but yes, its 'the' answer

hello! I hear you need a problem solving?

hmmmmmm. "conjunction Fallacy" will remember that one next time I need one up on DH...

I only said b because everyone else was saying a. Honest

Yup, of the two options a is more likely (because there are more bank tellers than bank-tellers-who-are-active-feminists). But she could also be a nun, a stripper, a space pirate or have been run over by a truck sponsored by the military-industrial complex to wipe out all independent thought, dudes.

is there a punchline?

she's a bank teller and wondering where all her big ideas went about writing a book and changing the world

thought i'd read to the end
sounds like your dh studied philosophy with a hefty logic module
hope he is not now bank teller

I mist admit I didn't get this at all. I first saw it and thought "why are a and b mutually exclusive?"

DH is a statistician

A.

Students are all activists, passionate about something or other, marching for this that and other.

Then we enter the real world and life gets in the way of our marches.