Short answer: there is no solid published evidence that men and women, or younger and older players, win rock paper scissors at different rates, and the popular claim that "men throw rock, women throw scissors" comes from tournament folklore rather than a controlled study. What the research does show clearly is that almost everyone, regardless of who they are, plays in predictable patterns.
This page replaces several older articles on this site that quoted precise percentages by gender and age. I could not find a source for any of those numbers, so they are gone. What follows is what we know, what we don't, and how you could find out.
Where the "men throw rock" idea comes from
The claim is usually traced to the Walker brothers, Douglas and Graham, who ran the World RPS Society in Toronto and wrote The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide (2004). In interviews they described rock as the throw inexperienced and aggressive players, especially young men, reach for, and suggested women lean slightly toward scissors.
That is useful as tournament lore: they watched thousands of real matches. But it is observation, not measurement. No table of counts by gender was published, the players were a self-selected bar-tournament crowd, and the idea that rock "feels aggressive" is an explanation added after the fact.
You will also find websites stating that a named journal published a gender study on first throws. I searched for those papers and could not find them, so I am not repeating them. If you see a gender statistic about RPS with no study title, authors and year attached, treat it as unverified.
What the solid research actually shows
The best-known experiment on how people really play is the 2014 study by Wang, Xu and Zhou at Zhejiang University. 360 students played 300 rounds each in groups of six, with small cash payments for winning. The headline finding was about behaviour after an outcome, not about who the players were:
- Winners tend to stay with the throw that just won.
- Losers tend to shift, and in a consistent direction rather than at random.
That pattern, often called win-stay, lose-shift, is a property of human decision-making under pressure. The study was not designed to compare men and women, and I am not aware of it reporting a gender difference. For the details and how to use it, see the science of RPS and RPS psychology.
What our own data shows (and what it can't)
wrpsa.com records throws made on the play page. From July 29 to September 27, 2026 we logged 3,020 throws from 943 players, mostly against the computer.
| Measure | Rock | Paper | Scissors |
|---|---|---|---|
| All throws | 36.2% | 35.6% | 28.2% |
| First throw of a game | 38.1% | 36.0% | 25.9% |
And after each result:
- After a win, players repeated the same throw only 20.0% of the time, and moved to the throw that beats it 42.3% of the time.
- After a loss, 38.5% "upgraded" to the throw that would have beaten their opponent's last throw, 34.0% "downgraded", and 27.5% stayed.
Two caveats matter here. First, the sample is small and mostly human-versus-computer, which changes behaviour (our players did not show the win-stay habit from the Zhejiang study). Second, we do not collect gender or age, so this data cannot answer the question in the title. I would rather say that plainly than guess.
What it does show is that scissors is under-thrown by everyone in our sample. That is the kind of population-level bias you can actually use.
Could age matter?
Plausibly, in one specific way: young children often play with fixed habits (a favourite throw, or repeating whatever just won) and are easier to read. That matches everyday experience, but I could not find a published study measuring RPS throw choice by age group, so I will not put numbers on it. Adults, on the other hand, are not better at randomness just because they are older; the Zhejiang participants were university students and still showed strong patterns.
How to tell a real finding from a made-up one
When you read an RPS statistic, check for:
- A named source: authors, year, and where it was published.
- A sample size: "players prefer rock" means nothing without knowing how many players.
- A setting: tournament, lab, online versus a computer, or a playground all produce different behaviour.
- A comparison that was actually measured: a study that did not record gender cannot tell you anything about gender.
What to do with this at the table
Play the person, not the stereotype. Watch what your opponent does after they win and after they lose, since that is the pattern the evidence supports. If you have no information at all, remember that rock and paper are thrown more often than scissors, so paper is a sensible opener. Our strategy guide goes through the full approach.
FAQ
Do men throw rock more than women?
It is a common claim from tournament organizers, but I have not found a published dataset that measures it. Treat it as folklore.
Does gender affect who wins rock paper scissors?
There is no reliable evidence that it does. Outcomes depend on how predictable each player is, not on who they are.
What is the most common first throw?
In our sample of 943 players, rock (38.1%), narrowly ahead of paper (36.0%), with scissors last (25.9%).
Are kids more predictable than adults?
Probably, anecdotally, but I have not found a study that measures it. Adults are also far from random.