Science Says Your Ability To Make Random Choices Peaks At Age 25

Apparently, our ability to make random choices is tied to our ability to creatively problem solve in life, and it peaks when we turn 25.

A recent study published by "PLOS Computational Biology" revealed that people's ability to make random choices or mimic a random process — while peaking at the age of 25 — actually progressively diminishes until 60, and then plummets to the depths of nowhere after that.

Obviously we already know that aging sucks. My Instagram just started popping up with unsolicited egg-freezing advertisements, and I'm nowhere near ready to have kids. So yeah, aging sucks.

The conclusions drawn by this study were tough to definitively produce before, because scientists used to use statistical tools to determine what we saw with our own eyes.

Mainly, that aging slows us down... and makes us a little more stubbornly set in our own ways, either less capable — or less willing — to creatively problem-solve.

This time, scientists used an algorithm to determine how age impacts our random behavior.

They basically ran a gazillion programs through this supercomputer to analyze the random choices that people made while completing online tasks.

The online tasks challenged participants (3,429 of them) to make something appear randomized, or to predict the next random event based on what they were already seeing.

After characteristics like gender, language and education, age was the only control that affected someone's ability to choose randomly.

On average, this ability peaked at age 25 and declined from there forward, as the participants got older.

So why should we care?

Well, although the research didn't make the connection between randomness and creativity or problem-solving skills it's focus, the author of the study believes there is a complex relationship between the two, according to Mashable.

And it's worth noting, if any of you science nerds want to get involved in the study, that you can take part online.

Citations: 25 is 'golden age' for the ability to make random choices (Science Daily)