Although there is a probability of winning while playing, Rock, paper, scissors They are third (33.3%) with science-backed strategies that challenge chance predictions. A team of cognitive neuroscience researchers from Western Sydney University (Australia) studied this famous game to find the key. The best formula to win multiple rounds His conclusion is clear. The key is to be as random and unpredictable as possible and not pay attention to what happened in previous rounds.
As shown in the article they signed, conversationresearchers conducted an experiment on several people. 15,000 games played They played rock, paper, scissors while their brain activity was recorded. The results of this study were published in the journal Social cognitive and affective neuroscienceThose who revealed that They were influenced by the previous round They tended to lose more often.
Similarly, they explain: People really don’t like randomness.And we can identify various biases and behaviors from brain activity when making decisions during competition. ”
In their case they used the following method: hyper scan “Observing competitive decision-making” during an interaction between two or more people unpredictability Like a game of rock, paper, scissors, it can give you a competitive advantage.
To do this, they recorded simultaneously. brain activity Number of participating player pairs 480 shots Rock, paper, scissors on the computer.
Researchers found that out of a total of 15,000 rounds played, players They didn’t like being unpredictable. When deciding which option to play next. “However, The best strategy is randomnessMost people had a clear preference and overplayed one of the options. “More than half of the players chose ‘lock’, followed by ‘paper’, while ‘paper’ was the least popular choice,” they detail.
Similarly, players tended to: Avoid repeating your choicesAnd they were more likely to choose a different option in the next round than would be expected by chance, the researchers added.
“By trying to be unpredictable, Relying on previous results is not helpful. Only those who lost the game had information about the previous game. Those who won did not win. “This means that relying too much on past results undermines strategy,” they point out.
This research shows that people try to predict the future based on past results. may have the opposite effect“A good conclusion is that people who stop overanalyzing their past are more likely to succeed in the future,” the researchers said.