ABSTRACT
S imon Says put your right hand on your head and rub your stomach with your left hand,” I would command my eightyear-old friends. I would repeat this statement a few more times, switching what the left and right hands were doing, before I would go in for the kill. While telling them to put their right hand on their head and rub their stomach with their left hand, I would do the opposite. Or I would say nothing at all and make the action. Without fail, my friends followed my actions as their behavioral cue rather than what I was telling them to do, even though they knew the way to win the game was to follow the proper verbal commands. So goes the childhood game of Simon Says. Whether it is the Norwegian “Kongen befaler” or the Spanish “Simón dice,” this game of following leadership commands in a group setting is played by children around the world.
