Rats switch to random mode when up against hard-to-beat competitors and we should too

Laboratory rats can flip their little rodent brains from strategic predictable decisions to random choices and if they can do that scientists say we too can embrace the joys and the reduced pressure of random decision-making. We're looking at rats as role models today.

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock, is likely too complex for anyone who isn't a character on The Big Bang Theory. But Sheldon Cooper is right... regular old rock, paper, scissors, can be boring with a competitor who knows you well. The brain is designed to make decisions based on experience. But it can also make us predictable or even biased.

Maybe it doesn't have to be this way. A new study on rats, published in the journal Cell, shows their brains can apparently act randomly when facing difficult competitors. And some believe humans should also embrace the power of randomness for small and even large life choices.

Gowan Tervo, a member of the research team joined as part of our season-long project, By Design. He is a research scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus.

Many of us have come home from work just to fret over dinner or spent hours combing through Netflix only to fall asleep on the couch. Sometimes it feels as if a life without decisions might be a better life.

Oliver Burkeman joined us with his take on how making random choices could help us be happier. He is a writer for The Guardian and author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking.

Do you over-analyze your options? Could making random decisions lead to a happier life?

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This segment was produced by The Current's Shannon Higgins.