The Psychology of Rock Paper Scissors.

Rock Paper Scissors Psychology is extremely important. Many people may have thought that RPS was similar to flipping coins or throwing dice a useful method to choose something at random. However, there’s far more to the game than meets the eye. RPS involves observation, Mind fullness, manipulation, emotional intelligence, strategy, and skill. And some of that skill involves exploiting your opponent’s non-random behavior.

If people were truly playing RPS in a random fashion, it would be impossible to employ any strategy. You would do best to just choose your weapon at random. Eventually, you would have an equal likelihood of winning, losing, or tying. Several small-scale experiments have confirmed this strategy—where every player chooses the three actions with equal probability in each round—often seems to be in effect.

Then a study out of China by Zhejiang Wang at Zhejiang University suggested that RPS is actually a game of psychology more than chance, thus making it possible to exploit your opponent’s predictable patterns. Zhejiang and colleagues looked at 360 students divided into 60 groups. In each group, the players played 300 rounds of RPS against each other. The winners were paid in proportion to the number of their victories.

On the surface, the results of the study appeared to be no surprise: The players in all the groups chose each action about one-third of the time—just as if it was random. But taking a closer look at their behavior uncovers a strategy called “conditional response,” or what turns out to be a “win-stay, lose-shift” strategy. These findings inspire further questions as to whether this conditional response is a hard-wired neural mechanism or a learned process intrinsic in basic decision-making. When players try to employ some kind of strategy, they decrease the chances that the game will remain random.

Here are psychological strategies employed by RPS aficionados to use against non-random opponents.

• Winners tend to stick with the same action that led to their success. We repeat what works. So, if you lose with rock (they played paper), they’ll play with paper again next and you should go with scissors. In other words, when you lose, jump ahead two actions in the sequence.

• Losers change their strategy and move to the next action (clockwise: R —P — S) in the sequence. If they lose with rock (you played paper), they ’Il play paper next. So you should play scissors. In other words, when you win, go to the next action in the sequence.

• Know the symbols. There may be subliminal reasons for your opponent choosing a particular symbol.

Rock: Very aggressive, symbolized by the fist. Players subconsciously think of rock as a weapon and will rely on it when other strategies are not working.

Scissors: Some aggression, as they are sharp and dangerous, but also useful craft tools. Represent controlled aggression used as a clever throw—often when someone is confident or winning.

Paper: The most subtle move. An open hand is passive, peaceful, and friendly. Some players won’t use this when falling behind because it may symbolize weakness. Other players identify paper with writing and as such, the power of print is a subtle attack. In those cases, paper may be used to signify superiority.

• Rock is a typical opening move for rookies, especially for men, since rock is associated with strength and fortitude. Knowing this, a good opening move against a novice is often paper.

• As in aches match, you must think ahead. Against a more seasoned opponent, they will purposefully not begin with rock, which is too obvious. They may consider you to be a novice, expect rock and will therefore open with paper. Against a veteran, you should lead with scissors: at worst, you’ll tie.

• Manipulation: Gently manipulate your opponent toward choosing a particular action, or not choosing a particular action. If you can subtly get your opponent to not throw rock, then you choose scissors (leads to either a tie or a win). Manipulation comes in many flavors—how to win friends and influence people…Tell your opponent what you are going to throw and then actually do it. As they will likely not expect you to be that fearless and honest, the one thing that they probably won’t throw down is the action that beats yours. If you say, “rock”, your opponent will likely throw rock or scissors, leading to your victory or tie. Another subtle manipulation technique derives from neurolinguistics programming. At the start of the game, remind someone about the rules. You might say, “Scissors beats paper, paper beats rock (show a sample of the rock with arm movement), and rock crushes scissors” (demonstrate how the rock crushes the scissors). In magic, this is called a “force.” Now expect them to throw down a rock. Obviously, you’ll answer with paper.

• No one likes to be predictable. If someone has already thrown a double (typically because they won the first time with it), they are very unlikely to use it for a third time. If they used scissor twice, their next move will either be rock or paper. Paper is your best move to either win or tie. If they do two rocks, you follow with scissors. Two papers, you answer with rock.

• Know the Stats: Statistically, the expected average is 33.3% if everything is completely random. it turns out that the most common throw is rock (35%), scissors (35%), and then paper (29.6%). So not sure what to do next? Picking paper may give you a very slight advantage.

• Being mindful: Observe your opponent’s hands before he throws. A tight hand when raised often ends in a rock. A loose hand becomes a paper and the first two fingers loose results in a scissors. Closely observe your opponent as he or she plays RPS against others, do they tend to fall back on one particular throw? Is there a pattern? Do they telegraph their throw by moving their fingers early?

As a result of RPS contests, many complex algorithms have been developed with heuristically designed strategies, sub-strategies and met strategies based on past performances, frequency analysis, history matching, multi-history matching, and even random guessing. Of course, if you were fortunate enough to have very keen observational skills and lightning fast reflexes, you’d have an amazing advantage. When the robot hand from the University of Tokyo plays RPS, it uses a high-speed camera to recognize within one msec. Which shape the human hand is making, and delivers the winning shape 100% of the time.