Experiment: is the word ‘simply’ counter-productive?

Experiment: Find a task that can be completed in ~3 mins

Group A (control): “On the next slide, you’ll be asked to complete a task”
Group B: “On the next slide, you’ll be asked to complete a simple task”
Group C: “On the next slide, you’ll be asked to complete a tricky task”

How does the inclusion of the word “simple” or “tricky” affect the success rate in the task?

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What can computers do? What are the limits of mathematics? And just how busy can a busy beaver be? This year, I’m writing Busy Beavers, a unique interactive book on computability theory. You and I will take a practical and modern approach to answering these questions — or at least learning why some questions are unanswerable!

It’s only $19, and you can get 50% off if you find the discount code ... Not quite. Hackers use the console!

After months of secret toil, I and Andrew Carr released Everyday Data Science, a unique interactive online course! You’ll make the perfect glass of lemonade using Thompson sampling. You’ll lose weight with differential equations. And you might just qualify for the Olympics with a bit of statistics!

It’s $29, but you can get 50% off if you find the discount code ... Not quite. Hackers use the console!

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