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Concept
Flipism
Summary
Flipism, sometimes spelled "flippism", is a pseudophilosophy under which decisions are made by flipping a coin. It originally appeared in the Donald Duck Disney comic "Flip Decision" by Carl Barks, published in 1953. Barks called a practitioner of "flipism" a "flippist".
An actual coin is not necessary: dice or another random generator may be used for decision making.
Flipism can be seen as a normative decision theory, although it does not fulfill the criteria of rationality.
In the original 1952 comic book, Donald Duck meets the eccentric Professor Batty, who persuades Donald to make decisions based on flipping a coin at every crossroad of life: "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" Donald soon gets into trouble when following this advice. He drives a one way road in the wrong direction and is fined $50. The reason for the fine is not his bad driving, but rather the fact that he relied on a coin to do his thinking instead of deciding for himself.
Flipism is a normative decision theory in a sense that it prescribes how decisions should be made. In the comic, flipism shows remarkable ability to make right conclusions without any information—but only once in a while. In reality, flipping a coin would only lead to random decisions. However, there is an article about benefits of some randomness in the decision-making process in certain conditions. It notes:
Though the author himself may have intended this as a rejection of the idea that rationality (in the standard sense) has some special claim to superiority as a basis for making decisions, what he may really have discovered are the potential benefits of strategic commitment to randomization.
Commitment to a non-trivial mixed strategy can be beneficial for the informed party in a potential conflict under asymmetric information, as it allows the player to manipulate his opponent’s beliefs in an optimal fashion. Such a strategy also makes the player less inclined to enter into conflict when it is avoidable.
Official source
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