CREATIVITY - FROM OTHERS' POSITIONS AND OWN POSITION

Three people are in the final round of a creative thinking contest. Being in the final means all three of them are very creative, and the organiser of the competition has to set a task that is extraordinary that can bring out the most creative among the finalists.

During the final contest, the three finalists are asked to stand in a circular manner facing one another. The finalists are told that a sticker will be placed on each of their forehead, which can be either red or blue in colour. Each finalist can thus see the stickers on the other two finalists’ foreheads, but he / she cannot see the sticker on his / her own forehead. The rule in the competition is that whenever a finalist sees two red stickers on the other two finalists’ foreheads, he / she must immediately clap his / her hands once; otherwise, just remain silent. Within 30 seconds, based on the responses of the other two finalists (i.e., whether one of them, both of them, or none of them, clap hands), the first finalist who can tell the colour correctly on his / her own forehead with an explanation will be the ultimate winner.

As a “warm-up” practice, before the actual competition, the organiser places a red sticker on every finalist’s forehead. Immediately, upon seeing two red stickers, all the three finalists clap their hands once. Within the next second, being very creative, all of them raise their hands and say that they know the colour of the stickers on their forehead is red, and they explain that if the colour of the stickers were not red, then the other two contestants would not have raised their hands.

Subsequently, in the actual competition, the organiser places a blue sticker on every finalist’s forehead. Certainly, none of the finalists claps his / her hands as each of them sees two blue stickers. All three of them remain silent. Just before the 30 seconds are up, one of them raise a hand and says, “I am sure that the colour of the sticker on my forehead is blue.” How does this finalist know it? (Note: Please spend a few minutes to try figure out how this finalist know the colour on his / her forehead is blue and not red, before reading the following paragraphs.)

This finalist (A) who eventually emerges as the ultimate winner, explains that he has put himself in the position of the other two finalists (B and C). That is, if the colour of the sticker on A’s forehead were red, any of B and C would see a red and a blue sticker, and the fact that no one claps (i.e., no one sees two red stickers), then B and C would know that the colour of their stickers is red. However, both B and C do not raise a hand and answer, A therefore knows that the colour of his sticker must be blue and not red.

Therefore, for relatively more complex challenges, creativity sometimes requires thinking from others’ positions in addition to own position.