Psychologists

Peter Wason

Citation Formats

General Reference

Psychology Atlas. "Peter Wason." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/peter-wason.

APA Style

Psychology Atlas. (n.d.). Peter Wason. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/peter-wason

BibTeX

@misc{psychologyatlas-peter-wason,
  author = {Psychology Atlas},
  title = {Peter Wason},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/peter-wason},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

British cognitive psychologist known for research on human reasoning and confirmation bias.

Facts

Birth Date

1924-04-22 1

Birth Year

1924 1

Death Date

2003-04-17 1

Death Year

2003 1

Birthplace

Bath, Somerset, England 1

Death Place

Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England 1

Nationality / Culture

English 1

Defining Contribution

Introduced the Wason selection task in 1966, a logic puzzle whose famously low success rate revealed how people reason differently about abstract rules than about the same rules framed in familiar, socially meaningful terms. 2

Notable Work

Wason selection task; confirmation bias research 1

Cross-Tradition Connections