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I read this article in Yahoo today and found it fascinating. A Psychology professor posed a seemingly easy extra credit question to his students. The question itself is hard to read, so I'll repeat what it says:
"Here you have the opportunity to earn some extra credit on your final paper grade. Select whether you want 2 points or 6 points added onto your final paper grade. But there's a small catch: if more than 10% of the class selects 6 points, then no one gets any points. Your responses will be anonymous to the rest of the class. Only I will see the responses."
There were 40 students in the class. It's an easy decision, right? Or is it? I'm almost 40, and I'm thinking of how I would answer today, vs. how I would answer when I graduated from college nearly 20 years ago. How would you answer? If it's been a long time since you were college age, would your answer be different now than it was then?
Generally, because I'm usually a very good student, I'd opt for the sure 2 points rather than the possible 6 points because while the two points might be nice, I usually wouldn't need them, let alone the 6 points. So why not go for the guaranteed bonus if I wasn't desperate for the 6 points?
I would have answered 6, just to sabotage the greedy folks who let everyone else take the lower number. In this situation, no one needs extra credit, if they wanted a good grade they could have studied more.
I'm with you, Jrz. I read a lot of comments about this question. It's really a Social Psychology question, in which you either choose to sacrifice what's good for you for the good of the group, or you make a choice in your own self interest which might come back to bite you. It's an unusual one in that it's anonymous, which actually makes it easier to make the selfish choice because the student doesn't have the power of peer pressure influencing his/her decision. Although I was a good student myself, even if I was a poor one, it makes logical sense to choose 2 because I can't count on other people to also choose 2. After all, even if 0 students choose 6, we all still get 2, as long as no more than 4 choose 6. 2 points is better than 0. But the whole group can't get the 6 no matter what. I'm thinking of the wise words of the famous philosopher John Stuart Mill. "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few." Our competitive society often forgets this.
I would be interested to know the percentage of people who answered 6 recently on that test as opposed to the percentage of people who answered 6 - 25 years ago???
I'm of the opinion that there are a LOT more self-centered people these days than there were 25 years ago.
I would have left it blank. I believe that if someone is to get any "extra credit" it should be earned. I got good grades anyway, so wouldn't have needed extra credit. But if I ever did go for extra credit, it was by actually doing something extra to earn it. I pretty much felt this was in college and still so, 20+ years later.
I'm not gonna lie - i'd choose 6 points, and hope that the rest of the people picked 2 points because they were afraid to be the "over 10%" 6 point pick.
I figure i'd have nothing to lose - it's not like the professor is going to DEDUCT 6 points.
It's totally simple to me. Add 6. If only a few add 6 then I am benefitted. If everyone adds 6 then we are right back where we started, at our true scores, so the excercise does not matter.
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