Eightball · Brain Cooler

Hold one question. Tap to shake.

the science

The die is not the oracle. You are.

A die can't know your answer. What it can do is make you feel one. In two controlled experiments, one with a coin toss and one with a die roll, people who let chance suggest an option reported sharper reactions than people deciding without one: clearer approval, clearer refusal, satisfaction voiced three and a half times more often. The device decided nothing. It made the preference visible.¹

And the feeling isn't noise. When people flipped a coin between two options they had rated weeks earlier, their reaction tracked the preference they had already stated. The honest limit, from the same work: the coin did not make anyone more likely to act on it afterwards. It reveals, it doesn't push.²

Handing the call over buys something too. Across eight experiments people delegated decisions precisely when a choice felt hard, driven by anticipated regret rather than any belief the other party would choose better.³ And the open question has its own cost: across 181 studies, intolerance of uncertainty tracks distress at r ≈ .51 whatever the diagnosis.⁴ So hold one small question, shake, and watch the half second before you agree. That half second is the answer.

Jaffé, M. E., Reutner, L., & Greifeneder, R. (2019). Catalyzing decisions: How a coin flip strengthens affective reactions. PLOS ONE, 14(8), e0220736.
Jaffé, M. E., & Greifeneder, R. (2021). This outcome feels right! Subjective evaluations of coin flip outcomes reflect previously stated preferences. PLOS ONE, 16(7), e0253751.
Steffel, M., & Williams, E. F. (2018). Delegating decisions: Recruiting others to make choices we might regret. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(5), 1015–1032.
McEvoy, P. M., Hyett, M. P., Shihata, S., Price, J. E., & Strachan, L. (2019). The impact of methodological and measurement factors on transdiagnostic associations with intolerance of uncertainty: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 73, 101778.