How do you analyze things?

My cousins and a niece hitched a ride with me last Friday.  When we were running out of stories to tell, a cousin said, she remembered a series of jokes – which is apparently some kind of quiz.  If you want to take the quiz (there's an interesting analysis at the end), I'll give all the questions first then if you've given up, just continue reading the rest of the story:

1. How can you fit an elephant inside the fridge?  How about a giraffe?
2. The lion called for a meeting of all animals, there was one animal missing.  Which animal was it?
3. There was a tourist who wanted to cross a crocodile-infested lake, how can he cross it if there's no boat?
4. There was a plane that was about to crash and the captain informed the passengers that one item had to be removed. What item should they get rid of?
5. There was a couple on an island and the girl was starving...she was too weak to move any farther so the guy said that he will look for some food.  Unfortunately, he never made it back to the girl.  He died. What happened?
6. In one house, a thief entered the premises but when the dog saw the thief, the dog ran away.  Why?

Here's the rest of the story:

When my cousin started with "How do you fit an elephant into a fridge?", we all said “How???!!!”.

Then she answered, “Open the door, put the elephant inside, then close the door.” Harhar...corny.

Then she continued to ask: “Now, how do you fit in a giraffe?”  At this point, my niece exclaimed that she remembered hearing this before.  She couldn't exactly recall the answer but she knew that the answer was connected to the first question.  With that clue, I guessed  - ”Open the door of the fridge, take out the elephant and put in the giraffe?”  And my cousin said “You got it right!” Haha...

My cousin continued, “The lion called for a meeting of all animals but there was one animal missing.  Which animal was it?"  Then it suddenly occurred to me - “The giraffe because he's inside the fridge!!!”  We all laughed that I got it right again. 

Then she continued,  “There was tourist who wanted to cross a crocodile-infested lake, how can he cross it if there's no boat?”.   We started asking questions on how big the lake is... I wanted to ask if there were lots of trees -maybe he can cross it ala Tarzan! Haha... Then I realized something!  I said “He can cross it because all the crocodiles are attending the animal conference!!!”  Haha... I got it right again!

Then she continued:  “There was a plane that was about to crash and the captain informed the passengers that they had to remove one item to avoid the crash. What item should they get rid of?”  We started mumbling “But what items were the passengers bringing?” but my cousin just kept mum.  Then it occurred to me, would a passenger be bringing a fridge by chance? So I gave it a try.  I said “A fridge with a giraffe inside it?”  Then she laughed and said “Yes!”  At this point, I wasn't sure if I should be happy that I was getting all the answers correct!

Then continuing, she asked “There was a couple on an island and the girl was starving... she was too weak to move any farther so the guy said that he will look for some food.  Unfortunately, he never made it back to the girl.  He died. What happened?”  My niece guessed – “Was he eaten by an animal?”.  My cousin said no.  Then I guessed maybe the animal conference ended, then there was a stampede and the guy was ran over.  My cousin still said, “No.”   What could have possibly happened?!  Then I made another connection – it sounded extremely ridiculous but I still gave it a shot.  Don't laugh, ok.  Anyway I said, “Was he by chance hit by a falling fridge that contained a giraffe?”  She laughed and said “Yes!”.  OMG, I got it right again. Unbelievable.

Then she asked:  “In one house, a thief entered the premises but when the dog saw the thief, the dog ran away.  Why?”

We were thinking aloud - what made the dog run?  Maybe the thief was wearing a scary costume? Haha... Then it suddenly occurred to me - “I know!!! The dog was going to attend the animal conference!” And yep, I was right again. 

I got 5 out of 6 – at this point, I feared to know what could the test say about my way of thinking! Haha..

Anyway, my cousin said that in a study, 90% of those who answered correctly – brace yourself (if you got the answers right) --- were  kids!!!  So in short, I think like a kid!  Bwahaha...  Simple thoughts, simple analysis, simple solutions. On the other hand, if you didn't get the answers correctly, it means, you think like the regular professional – meaning, you overanalyze facts and have a tendency to come up with complex solutions.  Whew, ok, I'm so glad I think like a kid!  Haha...