TIL: dogs and rabbits

[timelets]

“In the early 1900s, intelligence tests included questions like “What do dogs and rabbits have in common?” The answer that the test givers wanted was that they were both mammals. But often the answer they got instead was, “You use dogs to hunt rabbits.”

--- Carl Zimmer. “She Has Her Mother's Laugh."

I wonder whether human tendency to tell (and believe) stories represents a correction mechanism for overconfidence mistakes with regard to describing things and natural phenomena. (also related: dominant narratives and narrative economics).