My hunch got me into Notre Dame.
Posted on 03/06/2008 3:14:42 PM PST by blam
Go With Your Gut -- Intuition Is More Than Just A Hunch, Says New Research
ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2008) — Most of us experience ‘gut feelings’ we can’t explain, such as instantly loving – or hating – a new property when we’re househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings – or intuitions – are real and we should take our hunches seriously.
According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.
There are many recorded incidences where intuition prevented catastrophes and cases of remarkable recoveries when doctors followed their gut feelings. Yet science has historically ridiculed the concept of intuition, putting it in the same box as parapsychology, phrenology and other ‘pseudoscientific’ practices.
Through analysis of a wide range of research papers examining the phenomenon, the researchers conclude that intuition is the brain drawing on past experiences and external cues to make a decision – but one that happens so fast the reaction is at a non-conscious level. All we’re aware of is a general feeling that something is right or wrong.
“People usually experience true intuition when they are under severe time pressure or in a situation of information overload or acute danger, where conscious analysis of the situation may be difficult or impossible,” says Prof Hodgkinson.
He cites the recorded case of a Formula One driver who braked sharply when nearing a hairpin bend without knowing why – and as a result avoided hitting a pile-up of cars on the track ahead, undoubtedly saving his life.
“The driver couldn’t explain why he felt he should stop, but the urge was much stronger than his desire to win the race,” explains Professor Hodgkinson. “The driver underwent forensic analysis by psychologists afterwards, where he was shown a video to mentally relive the event. In hindsight he realised that the crowd, which would have normally been cheering him on, wasn’t looking at him coming up to the bend but was looking the other way in a static, frozen way. That was the cue. He didn’t consciously process this, but he knew something was wrong and stopped in time.”
Prof Hodgkinson believes that all intuitive experiences are based on the instantaneous evaluation of such internal and external cues – but does not speculate on whether intuitive decisions are necessarily the right ones.
“Humans clearly need both conscious and non-conscious thought processes, but it’s likely that neither is intrinsically ‘better’ than the other,” he says.
As a Chartered occupational psychologist, Prof Hodgkinson is particularly interested in the impact of intuition within business, where many executives and managers claim to use intuition over deliberate analysis when a swift decision is required. “We’d like to identify when business people choose to switch from one mode to the other and why – and also analyse when their decision is the correct one. By understanding this phenomenon, we could then help organisations to harness and hone intuitive skills in their executives and managers.”
The research is published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychology. The article comprises a critical review of previously published theory and research within psychology and the wider behavioural sciences.
Journal reference:Hodgkinson, G.P., Langan-Fox, J. and Sadler-Smith, E. (2008). Intuition: A fundamental bridging construct in the behavioural sciences. British Journal of Psychology, 99, 1-27.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Leeds.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about this very thing: “Blink”. Good book.
You know what my gut’s been telling me about Hillary, Obama, and McCain?
My hunch got me into Notre Dame.
Yup. I read that book and recommend it too.
Yeah, well my hunch is that you’re wrong.
Did you hear the 'still small voice"?
Gut? Food and energy don’t count. Maybe education, medical and all other consumer purchases will be excluded next.
HUH? Intuition is bread and butter in science. New hypotheses and major breakthroughs are borne of intuition. There is nothing mystical or paranormal about it - the more you know about a subject, the greater it seems your "intuition" is in its dealings (just like "luck", which seems to increase exponentially for those who work hard). Intuition is just a product of learning which has not been formalized. Now, "intuition" is obviously not sufficient as an explanation for the HOW or WHY (which must be formally explained in explicit detail), but it plays an important role in the scientific process. /rant off
Hey! Way cool! I saw the title and had a hunch you were the poster! I was right! What do I win?
Most people get married due to emotions & “gut feelings.”
About 1/2 of marriages end in divorce.
Junk.
It’s thinking like this which just encourages people to “follow their hearts” and make rash and illogical decisions.
Intuitions are not feelings.
But on the other hand, intuitions bypass reason and volition, making them automatic and irrational. They basically reduce to emotionalism and subjectivism.
As I recall Gladwell said most researchers now think intuition is a reaction of the subconscious mind to certain clues it recognizes to be part of a particular pattern.
Get out of my head! I was just thinking the same thing. We must have been a two-hunched camel twins, separated at birth.
Are you talking about the book written by Gavin DeBecker?
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