Water Line Test-Taker Fail

Figure A shows a bottle with some water in it. In Figure B the bottle has been tilted. Draw a line to show how the water line would look. A B Source: Halpern (2012): Fig. 3.12. The test-taker is asked to draw a line to show how the water line would look in the tilted bottle. The correct answer is a horizontal line relative to the earth. Halpern reports that the best estimate, summarizing results over many studies, is that about 40 percent of college women get it wrong. Effect sizes favoring males range from −0.44 to −0.66. In Halpern’s words, “It is difficult to understand why this should be such a formidable task for college women.” And yet the result has been replicated many times, has been confirmed internationally, and is just about impossible to explain as a product of culture or socialization. (if you doubt that, give it a try).

A diagram asks the viewer to draw the waterline in a tilted bottle, alongside a paragraph claiming that about 40 percent of college women get the answer wrong. The joke is that the supposedly simple physics question becomes a mocking reaction to people who fail to understand that water remains level relative to the earth, often shared as a test-your-intelligence or educational fail meme.

• @eternalclassic / 29872 2023-03-25