A question autistics have an easier time answering

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I knew the answer only because I saw this riddle years ago but it was framed as a riddle that would most easily be solved by psychopaths.

After I found out the answer and mulled it over for awhile, I thought of these same objections.

It requires you to think of a motive for her to kill her sister that somehow involves the man coming to her sisters funeral, but logic doesn't really enter into it. If anything it is an illogical motive. The motive presumes he will come to her sister's funeral but there is no logical reason to think he will. And if there is any logical reason to think he will because he knows everybody in the family, why not just ask them about him, especially ask the sister. Taking morals and emotions out of it, you are still left with the risk of jail time for murder.

Risking jail time for murder rather than asking family members about the man isn't logical.

Do the people in this thread who got it read or watch a lot of fiction? The answer to the riddle isn't logical, but it does follow the conventions of fiction. I noticed that some posters who didn't get it were stumped because they used logic to get to completely different answers. It really isn't logical to think that some guy you've never met will show up at your sisters' funeral just because he showed up at your mother's funeral. But it does follow the illogic (but good plotting device) of fiction. That's why I wondered if posters who got it immediately read a lot of fiction or see a lot of fictional shows and movies. This vignette doesn't follow logic, but it does follow plot devices.

But that isn't really very logical. If he knows the family well enough to come to the funeral of any family member, why does she have no way to contact him? She is, after all, in the family.

I love it

While some posters, including me, were mulling over reasons why murdering her sister wasn't actually logical, you came up with the most logical answer of all.

Seemed pretty obvious to me. I doubt there's much difference between NT and AS getting it though. Seems more like most people will get it whereas people who are a bit slow maybe won't

You don't have to agree with it to see the logic

I doubt many people would actually think it is logically ok to do that.

I am not slow to think it is illogical to kill someone to meet up with someone who the victim probably doesn't know. Even taking morals out of it, it is highly illogical if the reason to kill the sister was to meet the guy again.

As DandelionFireworks has said, if she wanted the inheritance, it is logical if there were just her and her sister to kill the sister for the inheritance but it is stated that "At her own mother's funeral, a woman meets the man of her dreams. She falls madly in love with him. But once the funeral is over, the woman has no way to contact the man. So she kills her sister. Why?"

There is no mention of the inheritance, there is a mention of meeting a guy that she wants. I don't see how it could mean that those who didn't get the answer are slow, I would think that it means that they are using logic. Anyways, it is clear that it was illogical to me, I didn't say about anyone elses opinion on this.

Heh, the same happened to me. Oops.

OOps again, me too!

It's not about applying real world logic. You know it's a riddle of sorts which often follow certain conventions. Just as guessing the twist ending of a Twilight Zone episode doesnt require you to actually believe in androids, angels and aliens or logically infer their motives. You just rely on experience with the conventions of that genre to guide you to the likely solution.

Taking "ok to do that" out of it, thinking a man will show up at your sister's funeral just because he was at your mother's is no more logical than thinking he will return your affections.

I don't think is a test of logic at all. It was written as a (joking??) test of empathizing with the psychopathic mindset. I don't think for one minute that autistic people actually empathize with the psychopathic mindset For the record, I think that autistic people empathize with the mindset of other autistic people, something that has been famously and terribly mischaracterized as "lack of empathy" when it is merely not empathizing with the NT mindset. If you use pure logic to try to solve the riddle, you run up against the illogic of thinking somebody will come to the funeral of your sister just because they came to the funeral of your mother yet even though they are that connected to the family you have no way to contact them. If you try to use empathy with the NT mindset, you (sometimes) can't solve it either. The NT mindset is "ask around for contact information".

Upthread I wondered if people succesful in solving this were able to do it because of deep familiarity with fiction conventions. "What would a psychopath do?" is something that a fiction fan can probably do without even thinking about it. There is a certain sort of screwy psycopathic logic to it. (If you ignore the illogic of thinking he'll show up at funeral B just because he showed up at funeral A.) So maybe there's that.

But maybe there's something else. This riddle is famously framed as a way to find out who "thinks like a psycopath". But many autistic people are getting it with ease, despite not being psycopaths. So what is going on, if this "autistics get it faster than NT's" thing is real? What stops a typical NT from getting it (like myself the first time I heard it) is that the incredible ease of getting contact information simply from asking around acts as a firewall to thinking of murder as a substitute for getting contact information. A true psycopath simply wouldn't care (which is what the test is trying to get at). An NT gets hung up on how easy it is to ask other people for contact information. Are autistic people having an easier time coming up with the answer because that hurdle has been removed...the one about assuming it is so very easy to get contact information by asking around? It's got to be more than simply "that's the only logical answer" because other posters came up with all sorts of equally or more logical answers (he's the funeral director, he's a red herring and she wants the inheritance, not him) as well as reasons why this murder wouldn't be very logical at all.

So is it that AS people don't factor in "but it's so easy to get contact information by talking to lots of people" because it isn't easy while NT people get stuck on that and therefore can't solve it? Because conventional logic doesn't lead you straight to that answer over all others.

That's what I was wondering upthread. Maybe the people who get it quickly are using plot device thinking to get the answer.

Yeah, That's what I did.

The premise of the murder was absurd. It's a riddle. So I just start thinking of cute twists to tie it up. It isnt like I actually believed any of this was reasonable.

It definately seems that using actual logic to solve the riddle doesn't work, because this murder is not logical. You and others have parsed out reasons why. I have two theories why some people get it more easily than others.

1)Familiarity with fiction/riddle/plot device conventions. So you aren't thinking "what's the logical answer" but rather "what's the anwer a riddle-writer would come up with?" Simon-says put this too.

2)Not immediately thinking "but it's so easy to get contact information just by talking to everybody else who was at the funeral," which could be what stops many NTs from getting it (unless they are familiar with genre conventions). This riddle is marketed as a way of finding out who "thinks like a psycopath". But maybe it's also finding anyone who doesn't use talking to everybody as a first resort for solving problems.

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Last edited by KBerg on 20 Mar 2011, 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I didn't get it!! !! I thought the reason he didn't see her again is perhaps that's her sisters husband and she killed her sister to get to him.

For me, the answer was obvious. Horrible, but obvious.

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Last edited by KBerg on 20 Mar 2011, 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.