Pigeons Choose a Door and Win

Pigeon coming in the door (photo from Wikimedia) 13 July 2026 There’s a famous problem that humans get wrong almost all the time but pigeons get right. It’s called the Monty Hall Problem, named after the TV host, co-creator and co-producer of television’s Let’s Make A Deal. It works like this: There are three closed doors, one with a prize behind it, two with goats. Suppose you and the pigeon both pick Door #1. illustration for Monty Hall Problem at Wikipedia You still don’t know where the prize is but Monty Hall does know and he opens one of the two remaining doors that has a goat behind it. illustration for Monty Hall Problem at Wikipedia Monty asks you, “Do you want to stay with your choice of Door #1 or do you want to switch?” Well, it looks like you have a 50-50 chance of winning so you stick with Door #1. This is a losing strategy. Pigeons switch doors and win 2/3 of the time. “Pigeons often perform quite impressively on tasks requiring them to estimate relative probabilities,…