Mind Tricks

I have the TV on in the background, and they just had one of those mind tricks on - you know, the kind you always get via email, where they make you do a bunch of things in your head then ask you to think of a colour, and they manage to predict which colour you'll think of (well, I always pick something different, but that's just me - I never claimed to be normal :P).

So this one went like this:

What is 2 + 2?


What is 4 + 4?


What is 8 + 8?


What is 16 + 16?


What is 32 + 32?

What is 64 + 64?

Now think of a vegetable...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You thought of a carrot, didn't you?


I always wonder how these things work. Surely there can't be something in the sequence that makes you think of carrots... maybe carrots are just the most obvious vegetable? I would think that the calculations are just to distract you, so that you're not thinking of the broccoli you're having with supper!

So what I'd love to do, being into the scientific method and all, is a a proper test: pick 50 people at random, and ask them to think of a vegetable. Then pick another 50, and do the whole calculation bit and then ask them to think of a vegetable. Are carrots chosen as often in both groups? And if not, why not?

Would be interesting :-)