Lateral thinking exercises
In 3’s read through and attempt to solve each of the following puzzles, the trick is to think
laterally:
1. A man is dressed in black.
Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and a balaclava covering his face. He is
walking down a street with all the street lamps off. A black car turns the corner and
speeds towards him with its lights off, but it somehow manages to brake in time.
How did the driver see the man in time?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. A father and his son are involved in a car accident, as a result of which the father
is very badly injured and his son is rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
However, the surgeon takes one look at the boy and says "I cannot operate on him". When
asked why, the surgeon replies "Because he's my son...".
How could this be the case?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs.
How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
4. There was once a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone ever
visited him was when his food and supplies were delivered, but they never came
inside. Then, one stormy winter night when an icy gale was blowing, he had a
nervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all the lights and went to bed.
Next morning, he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
5. A man walked into a hardware store. "How much will one cost?" asked the
customer. "Twenty pence," replied the shopkeeper.
"And how much will twelve cost?". "Forty pence." was the reply. "Right. I'll take one
hundred and twelve."
"Okay. That will be sixty pence, please." said the shopkeeper
What was the customer buying?
………………………………………………………………………………………………
6. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected
murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and
that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a
mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication
of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman.
How do they know they've got their man?
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Sociological Thinking
Lateral Thinking can be a useful technique to apply to the sociological interpretation of events
and ideas, since it is evident that, in the social world, whenever people view something they
make certain assumptions about the nature of the event being viewed. In other words, the
assumptions we bring into a situation necessarily colour our interpretation and understanding
of what we are seeing.
An obvious example here might be the use of two different concepts (terrorist and freedom
fighter) to describe the same thing - someone who uses violence to try to achieve certain
political aims. From one point of view - the people who are victims of the violence, the act may
be seen as one of terrorism (and hence unjustifiable). To the people responsible for inflicting
the violence, on the other hand, the act may be seen as justifiable in the context of the political
aims being pursued...
In other words, how we view something involves assumptions about how something does or
should behave. It follows, therefore, that if we change the assumptions on which our
interpretation rests it is possible we will see a different outcome - we will view it differently...
Sociologically, this idea is important since information about the social world is not something
that exists in a vacuum; on the contrary, information is produced by individuals and groups in
ways that fit with their assumptions about the nature of the social world and, for this reason,
we need to be able to think about the nature of the assumptions used (how reasonable are they,
for example?) and what would be the effect if we changed those assumptions?
Thus, that which looks self-evident, obvious or unquestionable using one set of assumptions
may be not be so evident, obvious or unquestionable using another set of assumptions and to
end this section on a sociological example of Lateral Thinking, consider the following:
It is possible, statistically, to demonstrate that children raised in single-parent families are far
more likely than children raised in dual-parent families to become criminal adults. If this, on
the face of things, is the case then it follows that something about growing-up in a single-parent
family seems to turn people into criminal adults. However, it's possible that a propensity
towards criminality has little or nothing directly to do with the type of family in which children
are raised - it may be that poverty is a far more important factor - and children raised by a
single-parent in our society are much more likely to experience childhood poverty...