Marilyn vos Savant (/ˌvɒs səˈvɑːnt/ VOSS sə-VAHNT; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the Guinness Book of Records, a competitive category the publication has since retired.
Since 1986, she has written "Ask Marilyn", a Parade magazine Sunday column wherein she solves puzzles and answers questions on various subjects, and which popularized the Monty Hall problem in 1990.
[citation needed] Savant says one should keep premarital surnames, with sons taking their father's and daughters their mother's.
She is of Italian, Czechoslovak,[6] German,[7] and Austrian ancestry, being descended from the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach.
[8] As a teenager Savant worked in her father's general store and wrote for local newspapers using pseudonyms.
She went to Meramec Community College and studied philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis but quit two years later to help with a family investment business.
[12] Toastmasters International named her one of "Five Outstanding Speakers of 1999", and in 2003 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from The College of New Jersey.
The Mega Test has been criticized by professional psychologists as improperly designed and scored, "nothing short of number pulverization".
Savant was asked the following question in her September 9, 1990, column:[19] Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors.
This response provoked letters from thousands of readers, nearly all arguing doors #1 and #2 each have an equal chance of success.
A follow-up column reaffirming her position served only to intensify the debate and soon became a feature article on the front page of The New York Times.
[20] Under the "standard" version of the problem, the host always opens a losing door and offers a switch.
Savant addressed these issues by writing the following in Parade magazine, "the original answer defines certain conditions, the most significant of which is that the host always opens a losing door on purpose.
Most respondents now agree with her original solution, with half of the published letters declaring their authors had changed their minds.
[23] Like the Monty Hall problem, the "two boys" or "second-sibling" problem predates Ask Marilyn, but generated controversy in the column,[24] first appearing there in 1991–1992 in the context of baby beagles: A shopkeeper says she has two new baby beagles to show you, but she doesn't know whether they're male, female, or a pair.
This restriction is introduced by the way the question is structured and is easily overlooked – misleading people to the erroneous answer of 50%.
My algebra teacher insists that the probability is greater that the man has two boys, but I think the chances may be the same.
[citation needed] Savant retracted the argument in a July 1995 addendum, saying she saw the theorem as "an intellectual challenge – 'to find another proof using only tools available to Fermat in the 17th century.'"