Clever Hans
This celebrity goo was created by Scott Hardie.
publication date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026 (part of October 2026)
category: 
Hoaxes
clue: He could have counted on one hoof the number of guesses it would take you to tap out the answer to this German addition to the field of psychology, but only if his owner was present.
explanation: In the first few years of the 20th century, Clever Hans was a German horse who seemed able to do arithmetic in response to written and oral questions, tapping out the numerical answer with his hoof, in free public demonstrations by his owner Wilhelm von Osten. Psychologist Oskar Pfungst studied the horse and proved that it was not counting but instead reading subtle changes in the reaction of von Osten that signaled the correct answer. The phenomenon of a trainer unwittingly signaling an animal (or later, a human and even an artificial intelligence) to an otherwise unknowable solution came to be called the Clever Hans Effect. more…
intended difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm and Richard Slominsky
trivia: Scott categorized this goo under Hoaxes despite von Osten's apparently genuine belief in Clever Hans's ability, since von Osten continued to show off the horse's ability to count after Pfungst proved that it wasn't real.
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