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Mind

We are all bad at choosing random numbers in our own unique way

An experiment in which people were asked to choose random numbers or boxes on a grid, then do the same a year later, has revealed that we each have our own unique approach to randomness - and we're generally very bad at it

By Chris Stokel-Walker

7 February 2025

Picking a truly random number is harder than you think

aryna Terletska/Getty Images

People are generally bad at producing random actions, but now it seems that we are all uniquely bad in our own way. This makes it possible to predict how an individual will act randomly, which could have implications for data security and choosing suitably strong passwords.

Psychologists already know that we struggle with randomness – ask people to name a random colour, and a majority will say “blue”, while the most frequent answer for a random number between 1 and 10 is 7.

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