So just over a week ago, I asked you all a riddle....
A boy and his father are involved in a bad car accident.
Two ambulances arrive to treat them at the scene, but both are very badly hurt and need urgent medical attention.
The ambulances take them to two separate hospitals - the boy goes to one hospital, the father goes to another.
When the boy arrives at hospital, he is rushed into the operating theatre for lifesaving surgery - the surgeon enters, takes one look at the boy and says "I cannot perform this operation, this boy is my son".
How is this possible?
I've waited a while before posting the answer because I wanted to give a fair amount of time for people to answer.
There were 27 responses....out of those, 13 people got the answer right.
So pretty much 50% of people guessed incorrectly...
Some of the incorrect answers included....
Grandfather?
The boy was adopted?
The boy was travelling with a Father in the religious sense?
People had clearly thought long and hard about the answers....
Actually, the answer is much more straightforward than this.
Who is the surgeon?
SHE is the boy's mother.
Yep....because we naturally assume that a person in such a position of authority will of course be a man, most people don't even think of such an obvious female relation.
Interesting, don't you think?!!
I first heard this riddle in a college class about gender equality - the class was made up of 30+ FEMALES and it took a good 20 minutes of incorrect guesses before somebody got it right.
Did you get the answer right? If not, are you shocked that you didn't think of the boys mother? As always, I'd love to hear from you!!
