Chapter 2. Why Aesthetics?
IMAGINE YOU’RE PART of a research study, one that you’re told will measure your IQ. You’re presented with three objects: A candle, a book of matches, and a box of thumbtacks.
Your challenge is to attach the candle to the wall in such a way that no wax drips onto the table. How would you go about doing this?
A psychologist named Karl Duncker developed this creative challenge—known as the candle problem—in 1945 to measure “the influence of ‘functional fixedness’ on a participant’s problem solving capabilities.” Functional fixedness describes a cognitive bias that limits us to using an object only in the way it’s traditionally ...
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