Monty Hall problem

English

Alternative forms

• Monty Hall paradox, Monty's dilemma

Etymology

Coined by American statistician Steve Selvin in 1975, named after Monty Hall, former host of the American television game show Let's Make a Deal.

Noun

Monty Hall problem (plural Monty Hall problems)

1. A brainteaser regarding probability, in which a game show contestant picks a door to win a prize. One door conceals a car; the other two conceal goats. After the contestant picks a door, the host opens one of the two remaining doors which reveals a goat. Counterintuitively, it is then in the contestant's interests to switch to the remaining door.
   • 1991 July 21, John Tierney, “Behind Monty Hall's Doors: Puzzle, Debate and Answer?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     A few mathematicians were familiar with the puzzle long before Ms. vos Savant's column. They called it the Monty Hall Problem—the title of an analysis in the journal American Statistician in 1976—or sometimes Monty's Dilemma or the Monty Hall Paradox.

   • 2009, Jason Rosenhouse, The Monty Hall Problem […] , Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 42:

     In the Monty Hall problem, it is one thing if your initial choice is incorrect and you lose the game by failing to switch. It is quite another to be sitting on the correct door and then lose the game by moving away from it.