Should You Trust Your Gut Instinct?

Do you ever get the uneasy sensation in your stomach that a particular choice is the right one, but you're not sure why? Is there science underlying intuition, which is sometimes dismissed as mystical or associated with telepathy and premonitions? Is it wise to follow your gut?

Knowing something right away without using conscious thought has more to do with pattern recognition than it does with foresight. Could you replicate this exact chess game structure if I presented it to you for five seconds? Research indicates that while most chess beginners can replicate 25% of it, expert players can do it with 95% accuracy. On the other hand, when the job is redone with the parts arranged at random, only 25% of the information is remembered by both beginners and experts. The masters just rely on their knowledge and intuition, which is based on patterns they have seen over years of practice—they do not possess photographic memory!

Both rapid and slow thinking are ways in which our brain processes information. For instance, trying to solve this arithmetic issue will make you feel stressed and force you to think slowly. However, this image requires quick thought; the brain reacts instantly to recognize the grief. And intuition is found in this quick thinking. In a related research, participants in the Japanese board game Shogi were required to figure out a checkmate move in under a second. Brain scans of professional Shogi players revealed little activity of the cortex, the portion of the brain responsible for conscious cognition, maybe because they had little time for conscious analysis.

Rather, there was a trigger for the basal ganglia, which are connected to the development of habits and habitual behaviors. Surprisingly, one study discovered that participants made better judgments when they followed their gut feeling when it came to making complicated decisions like purchasing a home, despite the general consensus that thorough consideration along with a list of pros and cons is preferable. It turns out that we frequently only consider a small portion of pertinent data, which might cause us to incorrectly assess the relative value of each trait. The study also discovered that those who made selections based on instinct were ultimately happier with their choices than people who thoroughly considered their options.

However, the study indicated that deliberate thinking and research were beneficial for making straightforward decisions, like what toothpaste to buy, when factors are not as complex. Do you think you can recognize your own voice? Remarkably, 75% of research participants misidentified their own voice after hearing a recording of many voices played back-to-back, including their own. The most amazing thing, though, is that when their skin conductance was also tested, it was found to be much greater when they heard their own voice. This suggests that they had disregarded their intuition, which had already known the right response. In a card game using four decks of cards, the same result was seen.

From any pile, the players would choose a card that would either be good or evil. Decks A&B had more terrible cards than decks C&D, without their initial knowledge. The participants had no idea what was going on after selecting 10 cards, but by the time they had 50 cards, most of them would have guessed that some decks were superior to others.

After 80 cards, they were finally able to explain why they thought decks C&D were superior than decks A&B. But once more, reaching for piles A and B would cause their skin conductance levels to increase as early as the first ten cards, even before they were aware of it cognitively. Before their conscious mind even considered the option, their skin was sending out subconscious cues. Their unconscious mind started recognizing patterns before their conscious mind did, even while their skin didn't KNOW the right response. So, is it always best to trust your gut feeling? It turns out that not in situations of empathy.

In a study involving more than 900 participants, it was discovered that methodical thinking or thoroughly evaluating the facts at hand before to making a choice was more successful than following one's gut instinct when it came to properly reading and comprehending the sentiments of others. Our intuition is primarily shaped by our prior experiences, which have enabled our ancestors to distinguish between friends and foes. On the other hand, we were given two different thought processes: rapid and slow, and I advise using both.