A new study finds that blindfolded players of Rock-Paper-Scissors are more likely to win:
[Researcher Richard Cook] devised this study because he was interested in the idea that we all automatically and unconsciously imitate one another. … That’s why he turned to rock-paper-scissors. Here is a game where you have to avoid imitating your opponent in order to win – the rules implicitly encourage people to avoid copying what their adversaries do. The results of Cook’s face-offs suggest that the sighted player has a slight tendency to imitate the blindfolded one – that’s why a blindfolded player will draw more often against a sighted one than another blindfolded opponent.
Richard Cook explains that some people are better at suppressing this impulse.
The Dish 