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Do you ever get that feeling in your gut that something is the right or wrong decision,
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but you don't know why? Our intuition is often deemed as mysticism or linked with telepathy
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and premonitions, but is there a science behind it? Should you trust your intuition?
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Understanding something immediately without conscious reasoning is less about seeing into
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the future and more to do with pattern recognition. If I showed you this layout of an actual chess
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game for 5 seconds, could you reproduce it? Studies show that most chess novices can recreate
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25% of it, but chess masters do it with 95% accuracy. However, if the task is repeated
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with the pieces in completely random positions, both the novices and masters only recall 25%.
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The masters don't have photographic memory - they simply use their knowledge and intuition,
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based on patterns they have seen over years of practice!
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Our brain processes information through both slow and fast thinking. For example, this
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math problem with cause a stress response, and your brain will kick into slow thinking
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to solve it. But this picture involves fast thinking; understanding the emotion of sadness
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is an immediate brain response. And this fast thinking is where intuition lies.
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In a similar study on the Japanese board game Shogi, participants were asked to solve a
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checkmate move within one second. With no time for conscious analysis, brain scans showed
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no activation of the cortex in expert Shogi players, the part of the brain responsible
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for conscious thought. Instead, the basal ganglia, which is linked to habit formation
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and automatic behaviours was triggered.
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Interestingly, when it comes to complex decisions like buying a house, while many believe careful
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thought with a pro's and con's list is best, one study actually found that participants
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made better choices when they went with their snap decision. It turns out we often only
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take into account a subset of relevant information which can lead to us weighing the importance
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of each attribute inaccurately. The study also found that those who trusted their gut
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were more satisfied with their decisions in the long run than those who thought through
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the process carefully. However, when making simple purchases like what toothpaste to buy
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- where variables are not as complex - the study found intentional thought and research
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to be helpful.
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Think you can identify the sound of your own voice? Surprisingly, after listening to a
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recording of many voices in succession, including their own, 75% of participants in a study
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made a mistake recognizing their own voice. But the most fascinating part is that their
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skin conductance was also measured, and these levels went much higher when their own voice
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came on - even though they didn't consciously recognize their voice, suggesting they had
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ignored their intuition which knew the correct answer first.
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This same phenomenon was shown in a card game that uses 4 decks of cards. The participants
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would select a card from any pile which would either be good or bad. Without them knowing
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at first, decks A&B had more bad cards, while C&D had more good cards. After choosing 10
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cards, the participants had no idea what was happening, but by 50 cards most would suspect
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that some decks were better than others. Finally after 80 cards, they could articulate that
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decks A&B were bad and C&D were good. But again, even though they knew it consciously,
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their skin conductance levels would rise as early as the first 10 cards in response to
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reaching for pile A&B. Their skin was already making unconscious signals about the right
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choice before their conscious mind did. Of course, their skin didn't KNOW the correct
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answer, but their unconscious mind began understanding patterns before their conscious mind had.
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So is following your intuition always the route to go? Not in cases of empathy, it turns
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out. A study involving over 900 participants found that when it came to accurately interpreting
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and understanding the feelings of others, systematic thinking or carefully analyzing
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the information available before making a decision was more successful than going with
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what feels right.
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Relying on our past experiences is essentially how our intuition is formed and it has helped
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our ancestors determine friend from foe. However we were given two systems of thinking - fast
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and slow, and we recommend that it's best to follow them both.
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Special thanks to audible for supporting this episode to give you a free 30 day trial at
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audible.com/asap. This week we wanted to recommend the book “Algorithms to live by” which
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is a really interesting look at how computer algorithms can be applied to your everyday
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life! You can get a free 30 day trial at audible.com/asap and choose from a massive selection! We love
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them as they are great when you're on the go.
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And subscribe for more weekly science videos!
