UNDERESTIMATING MARILYN VOS SAVANT
Lizette Vela, Bryan Collegiate High School
by Lizette Vela
On September 9th of 1990, Marilyn Vos Savant sat in her office reading her Parade magazine column. After about a week, she had received more than 10,000 letters debating her response to a problem on a game show called “Let’s Make a Deal,” Marilyn argued with several colleagues, professors, scholars, and a “genius mathematician” about her supposed incorrect answer. Marilyn noticed a comment from Craig Whitaker who wrote about The Monty Hall problem.
The Monty Hall problem confused several people because it was a probability game. During the game a person had to select one out of four closed doors. Behind one of the doors there was a grand prize. While the other ones had nothing inside of it. Marilyn read the comment made on her magazine column which said, “It’s impossible for anyone to answer this question correctly.” At that moment criticism arose quickly about the world’s smartest woman answering a question incorrectly.
When Marilyn was younger her parents noticed how she would answer a math or science question in less than two minutes. She would always run around in her parents' small house with a pencil and a white notebook on her hands. One day, Marilyn’s parents were working outside the house and decided to sign up their daughter for a test.
At the end of 10 years old, Marilyn nervously sat in a large, cold, quite testing room in St. Louis Missouri. She was wearing her black casual sweater inside the room with more than 20 other children taking the Stanford-Binet test. Before taking this test Marilyn knew what she was capable of accomplishing in school. Her classmates would always ask her for the answers on a test or homework assignment. Inside the testing room, Marilyn had a multiple choice test in front of her with a black sharpened pencil in her hand and she had no doubt when answering the questions.
Meanwhile, Marilyn’s parents who had immigrated from Germany spoke to the testing administrators about Marilyn’s intelligence and agreed on keeping Marilyn’s test score a secret so no one would find out and cause harm to their child. Her parents were so worried that Marilyn would be picked on in school by her classmates because of her intelligence. They knew that half of her classmates took advantage of her smartness and cheated off her test. This is why Marilyn’s parents knew that if they told the world about her being a brilliance young girl people would not accept her for who she was. Two months later, Marilyn received her test scores; she knew that the score on the test seemed unique, but no one ever told her the uniqueness of it.
“Women were rarely seen as accomplishing something successful.”
At that time Marilyn believed that nothing mattered. Marilyn said, “Women were rarely seen as accomplishing something successful.” When Marilyn questioned something, her parents would always tell her to seek out her own answers. Marilyn became used to it because no one ever really paid attention to her. She said that at times she felt alone, like an unwanted child. Instead, Marilyn would pretend to be happy around her family reunions even though she felt the emptiness inside of her. She felt the need of doing something that could fulfill the emptiness.
One day Marilyn realized how passionate she was about reading non- fiction books and writing fictional stories. At a young age, she wanted to continue her education with writing and learn how to publish her own book one day. Finally, in 1986 Marilyn’s parents decided to tell the whole world about her intelligence. Her parents made sure to have their daughter on every talk show they could possibly think of. About two years later, Marilyn made it on the Guinness Book of World Records “Smartest People of the World” she was honored for having the highest I.Q. score.
Having the highest I.Q. in the world does not make me have a living.
When everyone knew about Marilyn’s top I.Q. score of 228, Vos Savant became the center of attention from all kinds of media. Everyone loved to welcome a genius like Marilyn Vos Savant on their talk shows. Some of the shows Marilyn Vos Savant made it on were, CGTN America News, Joe Franklyn Show, Harold Hudson Channer and many more. In one of her interviews, Marilyn said, “Having the highest I.Q. in the world does not make me have a living. A person can only have intelligence if it has been inherited, and the I.Q. only measures the capacity to use that intelligence.”
Around this time, Marilyn knew she wanted to become a writer. An author who would publish books non-fiction books about logically thinking and writing questions people often asked. So two years later, Marilyn decided to move to New York and accomplish her dream as a writer. However, this never became an easy transition for Marilyn. She tried to focus on her financial independence to become a full-time writer. Somedays, Marilyn would sit down during the day and reflect on her life because she realized that she could not buy anything without any money. She would wake up early every morning hoping to find any kind of job, but it seemed impossible to find one. Marilyn tried to read over her writings but she would always struggle on editing her own work. At that time, Marilyn felt sad and alone in her apartment. She never told anyone her plans about publishing a book because she was afraid no one would accept her writings.
Marilyn really hopes she provides inspirational advice in her Parade magazine column for anyone that needs it.
Since everyone knew that Marilyn had the highest I.Q. she decided to start her own Parade magazine column. She wanted to answer people’s questions online so she could help others around her. People who knew Marilyn always told her how they could not imagine if she had gone through a different path in her life, she would probably end up working as a babysitter, librarian, teacher, or someone else other than a genius. Marilyn really hopes she provides inspirational advice in her Parade magazine column for anyone that needs it.
Marilyn loved to spend most of her time solving any kind of puzzles such as math, trivia, words, and riddles. She said, “They exercise your fluid intelligence, a combination of memory and problem-solving.” Marilyn then responded to the question with, “Yes; you should switch. The first door has a ⅓ chance of winning, but the second door has a ⅔ chance. Here’s a good way to visualize what happened. Suppose there are a million doors, and you pick door #1. Then the host, who knows what’s behind the doors and will always avoid the one with the prize, opens them all except door #777,777.”
When Marilyn answered the question, she said, “I have received more than 10,000 letters, mostly from researchers, mathematicians, and scholars debating with me.” Everyone criticized Vos Savant, about her incorrect response. Robert Sachs, from George Mason University, aggressively told Marilyn, “Since you seem to enjoy coming straight to the point, I’ll do the same. You blew it! Let me explain. If one door is shown to be a loser, that information changes the probability of either remaining choice, neither of which has any reason to be more likely, to ½. As a professional mathematician, I’m very concerned with the general public’s lack of mathematical skills. Please help by confessing your error and in the future being more careful.”
Scott Smith from the University of Florida told Marilyn, “You blew it, and you blew it big! Since you seem to have difficulty grasping the basic principle at work here, I’ll explain. After the host reveals a goat, you now have a one-in-two chance of being correct. Whether you change your selection or not, the odds are the same. There is enough mathematical illiteracy in this country, and we don’t need the world’s highest IQ propagating more. Shame!”
Marilyn did not let anything bring her down so she proved her point, “My original answer is correct. But first, let me explain why your answer is wrong. The winning odds of ⅓ on the first choice can’t go up to ½ just because the host opens a losing door. To illustrate this, let’s say we play a shell game. You look away, and I put a pea under one of three shells. Then I ask you to put your finger on a shell. The odds that your choice contains a pea are 1/3, agreed? Then I simply lift up an empty shell from the remaining other two. As I can (and will) do this regardless of what you’ve chosen, we’ve learned nothing to allow us to revise the odds on the shell under your finger.” Marilyn proved her answer by using another kind of example but relating the same meaning to the question asked to her from the beginning.
Even though Marilyn argued her point of view to other readers, they insisted to her that it made no sense. Others suggested Marilyn use a textbook next time because students never need this kind of ‘fake information.’ Marilyn read off the comments that were being made by people and wrote with excitement. “Gasp! If this controversy continues, even the postman won’t be able to fit into the mailroom. I’m receiving thousands of letters, nearly all insisting that I’m wrong.” Two weeks later, Seth Kalson from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology responded to Marilyn saying, “You are indeed correct. My colleagues at work had a ball with this problem, and I dare say that most of them, including me at first, thought you were wrong!”
Of course, Marilyn said, “Thanks, M.I.T. I needed that!” Readers began telling Marilyn that “they loved that question, and could not wait to show the problem to all their students.” With such enthusiasm, Marilyn responded with “Wow! What a response we received!”
After this, Robert Sachs said, “I can’t remember what my first reaction to this was, because I’ve known about it for so many years. I’m one of the many people who has written papers about it, so I’m not surprised there were mistakes.” This showed the time that everyone tried to correct the smartest woman in the world. Marilyn never let any judgment bring her down she said, “I just enjoy these nasty letters I got, the audacity of people! I just love them.”
Several of them wrote back, but none with an apology.
On a Tuesday morning, Marilyn sat in her office and wrote on her Parade magazine column, “Several of them wrote back, but none with an apology. Most maintained that the statement of the problem was ambiguous. However, plenty of other readers — people who had thought my answer was wrong but hadn’t written to say so and people whose letters weren’t published — wrote to say they had gotten it wrong at first but were delighted with the ‘aha’ moment when they understood later.”
Marilyn Vos Savant taught a lesson to a large group of people in the world about the Monty Hall Problem. She helped other individuals solve the Monty Hall problem and explained how she got her answer. About two days later, Marilyn once again sat in her office with a computer in front of her and typed a letter to Scott Smith, which said, “There’s plenty of intelligence in the world, but the courage to do things differently is in short supply.” Marilyn knew her answer proved something but meant nothing to others.
Five years later, Marilyn has continued answering peoples questions on her Parade magazine column, as a Columnist. She has published more than eight books since she moved to New York City. Marilyn started to change as an individual. She began to tell her family about her emotions and ideas about new upcoming projects in her life.
Marilyn remembers how she felt during the Monty Hall debate. She opened up her journal and wrote herself a message, “Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent,” wrote Marilyn Vos Savant.
Bibliography
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“Marilyn Vos Savant: Super Genius.” CGTN America, 6 Aug. 2016, america.cgtn.com/2016/08/06/marilyn-vos-savant-super-genius. Accessed 11 January 2018.
Rosen, Jason. “The Monty Hall Problem.” Google Books, Oxford University Press, 2009, 4 June 2009, books.google.com/books?id=cio1ViR8A7cC&dq=Essay%2Bpeople%2Bhave%2Bwritten%2Babout%2Bmarilyn%2Bvos%2Bsavant&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Accessed 11 January 2018.
Savant, Marilyn Vos. “Game Show Problem.” Marilyn Vos Savant, 1990, marilynvossavant.com/game-show-problem/. Accessed 11 January 2018.
Savant, Marilyn vos. “Ask Marilyn: Does Marilyn Ever Get Any Apologies?” Parade, 5 Feb. 2013, parade.com/48655/marilynvossavant/05-does-marilyn-get-apologies/. Accessed 11 January 2018.
Savant, Marilyn Vos. “Keep Your Brain Sharp with Brain-Teasing Puzzles from Marilyn Vos Savant.” Parade, 11 Sept. 2015, parade.com/422094/marilynvossavant/puzzles-for-a-happier-brain/. Accessed 11 January 2018.
Tierney, John. “Behind Monty Hall’s Doors: Puzzle, Debate and Answer?” The New York Times, 21 July 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/us/behind-monty-hall-s-doors-puzzle-debate-and-answer.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. Accessed 11 January 2018. https://www.montyhallproblem.com/
