How rock-paper-scissors champs use psychology to win A player who has studied the game will unquestionably win more than chance would dictate against a naïve player. By Greg Costikyan/MIT Press ...

The successful consignment also demonstrated that rock, paper, scissors, though ostensibly a game of chance, is not devoid of strategy – or its own mystical logic.

You couldn’t be more wrong. Rock, paper, scissors (RPS) – also known as RoShamBo – is a startling game of strategy that reveals both the fickleness and the limitations of the human mind.