One answer is expected here more confidently than almost any other force, and with less evidence behind it than almost any other force.
Name a flower.
The first one that comes to mind. Type it.
Rose. It is the expectation, and performers treat it as close to certain.
Flower was not among the ten categories in Rosch's typicality work, so unlike fruit and tool this one rests on tradition rather than measurement. The confidence and the evidence are pointing in different directions, which is a reason to count rather than assume.
Out of 0 answers so far. Free to quote, with the sample size beside it so a reader can judge the weight.
Once this passes 1000 answers, the measurement replaces the claim above as the headline of this page, and the claim becomes the thing being checked rather than the thing being reported. Saying that in advance is the point: a threshold decided afterwards is not a threshold.
Three things stack up, and they rarely stack this cleanly.
It is the default cultural flower. Roses mean romance, funerals, anniversaries and apologies. No other flower carries that many occasions, so no other flower is rehearsed as often.
It is visually unmistakable. Asked to picture a flower rather than list one, people produce something with layered petals and a stem — which is a rose before it is anything else.
The competition is weak. Daisy, tulip and sunflower are the realistic rivals, and each is a more specific idea. A daisy is a childhood flower, a sunflower is a tall one, a tulip is a Dutch one. A rose is simply a flower.
If rose takes a very large share, this becomes the strongest force in the set and worth a performer's confidence. If it takes a third and daisy takes a quarter, the tradition is overstated, and that is a more useful finding than confirming it.
Either way the number is worth having, because at present there does not appear to be one to quote.
The same trade as always: predict, ask, reveal only when right. What makes this force attractive is the confidence around it, and confidence without a measurement is exactly the thing worth checking. That is what the count above is for.
Rose is the expected answer, and performers treat it as close to certain. What is missing is a published measurement — flower was not among the categories in the typicality research that covers fruit and tool.
The running count above is that measurement.
It carries more occasions than any other flower — romance, funerals, anniversaries, apologies — so it is rehearsed more often. It is also what people draw when asked to picture a flower.
Its rivals are each a more specific idea: a daisy is a childhood flower, a sunflower a tall one. A rose is simply a flower.
It may be, and that is worth testing rather than assuming. The confidence around this one is higher than the evidence for it.
If it takes a very large share it is the strongest in the set; if it takes a third, the tradition is overstated.
This is one of eleven questions in the full study, which asks for a card, a number, a vegetable, a fruit, an animal and more, and shows the running counts for all of them. The rest of the site is self-working card tricks you can play in the browser.