The paper shows some significant evidence that human coin flips are not as fair as I would have expected (plus probably a bunch of people would agree with me). There’s always some probability that this happened by chance, but this is pretty low.

Of course, we should be able to build a really accurate coin flipping machine, but I never would have expected such a bias for human flippers.

This is why science is awesome and challenging your ideas is important.

Edit: hopefully this is not too wrong a place, but Lemmy is small, and I didn’t know where else I could share such an exciting finding.

  • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    My favorite part is this:

    Funding The authors have no funding to declare, and conducted this research in their spare time.

    • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      It’s just bizarre how high quality this evidence is. It’s probably because it’s so cheap to collect this data, and other science nerds are also science geeks like me.

      Actual video of this many tests. Just data orgasm.

      here it’s not ready yet.

  • treefrog@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I remember it feeling this way as a kid. That coins tend to land on the same side they start on.

    • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      No! Bad treefrog.

      If it “feels like” something, you’re probably fooling yourself.

      Hard evidence. The easiest person to fool is yourself.

      Edit: people, please don’t down vote treefrog. They are learning, and I am joking.

      Be nice. This place is way toxic. I’m not sure how much more I can handle it.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I read the beginning of the article. It confirmed my gut feeling. But I certainly didn’t run 300k coin flips to check lol

      • Jessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        Jokes on me! I doubt most of my decisions and the logic that lead up to them!

        Evidenced based research ftw, though.

        • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          If you’re still young, careful about too much imposter syndrome.

          It took me until some reasonably extreme events for me to acknowledge that I was smart.

          • Jessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            I’m being a bit facetious. It took me quite a while, and with the help of my best friend, to realize I am smart. I don’t like to say that sort of thing. I am smart when it comes to the things that I know well, but am clueless on so much else.

            • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              Exactly.

              Just making sure.

              I had a lot of trouble gathering that confidence as well until I got into industry.

    • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      I’m with you, i used to try influence what i wanted by catching it.

      If i wanted what i had flipped from i caught it palm up and then revealed. If i wanted the opposite i caught it and then revealed it onto my other hand.

      As i got older i wouldn’t let people catch the coin only let it hit the ground and bounce around.

    • Nepenthe@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I remember the opposite: heads always felt like “right way up” to us, but the result was almost always tails no matter who flipped it. To the extent that it still feels like the heads/tails percentage is the only positive version of the 50-50-90 rule, and I will never choose anything else.

      Probably confirmation bias. But I wonder if the people in my family are wobblier than others.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        lol at wobblier. Maybe drunk people flip coins different was what I got from that comment.

    • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah… I had that thought for a second. Then I geeked out on the math and came to the same conclusion I had before.

      Just as I won’t learn to play poker or count cards, I’m not learning and practicing this.

      I’ve got other things to do with my limited life.

  • Pregnenolone@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Humans inherently create patterns and routine in their actions. It’s why on roulette wheels they change the direction and the size of the ball regularly to prevent the spinners from pattern spinning.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      They don’t all inherently choose to make it land on the up facing side. In fact, I believe this study is not even true. I call shenanigans.

      • there1snospoon@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        I look forward to your article explaining how you used the scientific method to provide counter evidence to their study.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to do significantly more coin toss gambling now