If everyone votes for it, it's true.
for grown-ups
What we actually know
Both, depending on what the vote is about. That's the point of the round.
- A vote can decide a rule. What's for dinner, what the crew is called, whose turn it is. Once the vote is in, that is the rule, and it works because everyone agreed to follow it.
- A vote can't decide a fact. A spider has eight legs, four on each side, whatever the crew votes. Kea's crew votes six and wins, and the spider is none the wiser. "The spider was not told."
The round keeps it cheerful. Voting is a good way to be fair about what it's for, and nothing here is about elections or grown-up politics: the votes are the crew's.
Sources: the leg count is in any museum guide to spiders, for example the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Burke Museum ("Myth: 'Eight legs' always means 'spider'"). The round says "eight legs" and leaves out edge cases such as a spider that has lost a leg.
What kids usually bring
- "The most votes wins." True of a game or a dinner, and the round says so. It's the question of what kind of thing is being voted on.
- "Lots of people can't all be wrong." A natural thing to think. Kea puts it to the test: the whole crew voted six.
- "Someone told me the most votes is always right." A neat rule of thumb, which works for rules and not for facts.
- "It depends what the vote is about." The round's whole move, arrived at early.
- "A fact stays the same, however many people vote." Also the whole move, from the other side.
At dinner
Hold two votes at the table. First: "Pancakes or porridge tomorrow?" Count hands. Then: "How many legs does a spider have?" Count hands, then look it up, or find a picture and count. Ask: "Which vote could change the answer, and which couldn't?"
Ask: "What's a vote for? When is it the right way to decide?"
Then the one rule: say their reason back before you give yours.
The round never tells your child what to think. This card tells you what we know, so you're never caught out. If your child wants to argue with it, that is the point.
