The wrong answer, but whatever …
Next, the participants took a three-question math test with questions such as, “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”
The intuitive answer to that question is 10 cents, since most people’s first impulse is to knock $1 off the total. But people who use “reflective” reasoning to question their first impulse are more likely to get the correct answer: 5 cents.
Sure enough, people who went with their intuition on the math test were found to be one-and-a-half times more likely to believe in God than those who got all the answers right. The results held even when taking factors such as education and income into account.
How does one get 5 cents from that answer?
Seriously?
The bat costs $1.00 MORE than the ball.
If the ball = 10 cents, the bat would be $1.10.
If the ball = 5 cents and the bat $1 more, then the bat is $1.05, for a total of $1.10.