Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>“Anecdotal evidence suggests that in a game of Rock Paper Scissors, players familiar with each other will tie 75-80% of the time due to the limited number of outcomes. I suggest Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock!”

  • Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory on CBS</p>

<p>How true would you say this is. Statistically speaking, one would tie a third of the time, lose a third of the time and win a third of the time.</p>

<p>Using rock,paper,scissors,lizard,spock, one would tie 1/5, win 2/5, and lose 2/5.</p>

<p>But would 2 familiar players actually tie 75-80% of the time?</p>

2

<p>people often get too used to other peoples choices so it becomes closer to 50/50 as an asymptope, as seen in Figure 1.3.</p>

<p>ROCK ROCK
ROCK ROCK
PAPER SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS
ROCK PAPER
PAPER SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS
PAPER PAPER
ROCK ROCK
ROCK PAPER
PAPER PAPER
ROCK ROCK
ROCK PAPER
PAPER PAPER
ROCK ROCK
ROCK PAPER
PAPER PAPER
ROCK PAPER
PAPER SCISSORS
PAPER SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS
ROCK SCISSORS</p>

3

<p>Ties would happen 1/3 of the time if players really were equally likely to pick each of the three choices. Players are not. Many habitually prefer one, making ties between players familiar with each other’s movements more likely.</p>

4

<p>^I’ll vouch for that on a personal basis. Paper is awkward for me. I probably do Rock or Scissors each ~45% of the time and paper ~10%.</p>

5

<p>Well on Big Bang Theory they tie 100% of the time, because Spock is the first and only real choice.</p>

6

<p>^ Of course, which is the irony b/c with Spock and Lizard, it’s supposed to make ties less often.</p>

<p>But in terms of the original rock paper scissors, do ties occur 75-80% of the time?</p>

<p>I suppose this might not be true since it’s merely anecdotal evidence.</p>