Position preference and position change of hiders in the game of hide-and-seek

Abstract

We study common tendencies adult hiders have in choosing and changing positions in the game of hide-and-seek. In our case, the game takes the form of commercial and homemade advent calendars in which the creator has hidden Numbers 1, 2, . . ., 24 in a seemingly random way. By comparing the numberings in the 332 human-generated calendars with random numberings, we identify common tendencies that hiders share. We observe that hiders hide things far apart and spread out from each other, the behavior which is consistent with, but concurrently extends previous research on hiding and its connection with subjective randomness.

Keywords: Hiding behavior; default tendencies; subjective randomness; theory of mind.