But presuming they don’t, it’s safe to say that you should preempt them playing the same hand again if they just beat you.

If you want to win with this knowledge it also depends whether or not your opponent knows the knowledge as well. On the other hand, if people had just lost they tended to follow a cycling pattern of going Rock to Paper to Scissor. The researchers said people who were winning tended to stick more with their action. However, they did notice a distinct pattern in people’s tactics.

As an incentive, the researchers paid the students money if they won.Īcross all the games, the three actions came up approximately a third of the time, as you would expect. They recorded the results of 360 students playing about 20,000 rounds of games. Researchers from Zhejiang University specializing in the field of “game theory” conducted a study looked at the patterns that people tend to play within.

In their words, they say: “It has a lot to do with idea that rock is perceived as 'strong' and 'forceful', so guys tend to fall back on it.” Therefore, presuming you’re playing someone who knows their stuff, they argue you should go scissors first, as your opposing player will guess you will go rock. According to the World Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) Society, going rock first is a rookie move that is a particularly common initial move by men.

Flipboard paper