The Giraffe Test

by Robert Wilkinson

I think this is a clever mental exercise. It's called "The Giraffe Test." It's made the rounds for years on the internet, but if you haven't seen it, well, enjoy!

This test is to ascertain your mental state now. If you get one right you are doing ok, but if you get none right you may need some mental reprogramming.

Giraffe Test

There are 4 questions. Try not to miss one.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

Stop and think about it and decide on your answer before you scroll down.

The correct answer is:

Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into the refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer:

Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer:

The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.

This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer:

You jump into the river and swim across.

Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting.

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.

Anderson Consulting says this conclusively proves the theory that most professionals do not have the brains of a four-year-old.

Thanks, Mom, for passing this forward!

© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Shayne Laughter]

How funny. I always put myself into the actual situation - how would I actually get a giraffe into a refrigerator? I mulled whether to kill the giraffe and butcher it to stack the pieces inside, or assume it was a toy giraffe and could easily be placed inside. I finally decided that it was a real giraffe. So I would lay the refrigerator on its back, open the door, remove the shelves and invite the giraffe to step in. There. The giraffe is in the refrigerator. And I didn't have to kill it or assume it was not alive.

The "right" answer to the question makes it clear that the person running the test is not to be trusted; the way the whole test plays out, it's clear that the person running the test is not interested approaches to solving the stated problems, but instead is out to make the person taking the test feel stupid.

Learning that the test came from Anderson Consulting - a business which was dissolved in disgrace in the '00s - bears out my gut response. I temped for Anderson Consulting as a receptionist in 1996, and in my experience, anyone above Administrative Assistant in that place was not to be trusted and had no interest in useful approaches to solving a problem. :-D

[Charles]

But.. what if the Animal Meeting is at the river? The crocodiles will be there.

[Jo Garceau]

Hurray for Shayne!

[Robert]

Hi all - It's just a bit of clever whimsy. It always seemed a bit simplistic and yes, meant to trick rather than make you feel "right." Still, it's an interesting test of our assumptions. The first assumes we have a refrigerator big enough to fit a creature. Two and three assume once we put the creature in it will stay there. Why does the elephant stay in the refrigerator when commanded to be at the animal meeting? Since the first two are impossible under normal conditions, and most of us think of "normal" or "possible" real world solutions, the questions themselves are absurd. It's a "thought experiment" using impossible set-ups. Thus my take that it's whimsy.

Charles asked the same question I did originally - how do we know where the meeting is? It could in fact be at the river, since I watched all those National Geographic shows about Africa and Asia when younger and know the animals all congregate where there's water. I didn't really feel "stupid" when I didn't get the answers right, but I did find the exercise to be a trick of perception and assumption. When I saw this years ago I did know a child who got at least two right. But I don't think this test measures how smart anyone is. More like proof that those who designed the test thought like preschoolers. Which has been validated historically as per Shayne's observation.