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Is it rational to trust your gut feelings? A neuroscientist explains
The two thinking styles
Even groundbreaking scientific research may start with intuitive knowledge that enables scientists to formulate innovative ideas and hypotheses, which later can be validated through rigorous testing and analysis.
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Intuition as a tool
Emotions and intuition are not fallible tools that always need to be ignored or even corrected by rational faculties,.
Intuition is the result of a lot of processing that happens in the brain but has not yet reached your conscious awareness.
Predictive processing framework
Research suggests that the brain is a large predictive machine, constantly comparing incoming sensory information and current experiences against stored knowledge and memories of previous experiences, and predicting what will come next. This is described in what scientists call the “predictive processing framework”.
This ensures that the brain is always as prepared to deal with the current situation as optimally as possible.
The two thinking styles
Even groundbreaking scientific research may start with intuitive knowledge that enables scientists to formulate innovative ideas and hypotheses, which later can be validated through rigorous testing and analysis.
Intuition and biases
Because intuition relies on automatic and fast processing, it also falls prey to misguidances, such as cognitive biases. Despite this, familiarizing yourself with common cognitive biases can help you spot them in future occasions.
For every situation that involves a decision based on your assessment, consider whether your intuition has correctly assessed the situation.
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Patterns In Randomness
Our gut instinct or intuition can come in many forms, like detecting patterns in places where other people only see randomness or having a sudden flash of brilliance which goes against the grain but feels right.
Gathering enough data to make a rational decision also takes up a lot of time, and in today's fast-paced world, by the time one procures all data, the decision becomes antiquated.
Subconscious And Conscious Brain
Our subconsious mind continuously processes information, even when we sleep, which our conscious mind finally learns or infers, lighting a bulb inside us.
We know the gut feeling is true because our 'right brain'(intuition and emotion-based) already knew the revelation that our left brain (logic and consciousness-based) now has come to know.
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Creating quantitative models
Most of the psychological theories are verbal, but words can be imprecise. If "cooperation is intuitive", it needs to state when. And what does "intuitive" mean?
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The Sims computer simulation
These models represent collections of individual people described by computer algorithms that capture a specific set of traits, such as a tendency to cooperate or not.
- You can give them new personalities to see how they would behave.
- You can observe social processes in action.
- You can observe time scales, from seconds to generations.
- You can watch the spread of certain behaviors throughout a population and you can see how certain behaviors influence other behaviors.
The patterns that emerge can tell you things about large-scale social interaction that lab experiments and real people never could.
The human instinct to cooperate
There seems to be evolutionary logic to the human ability to cooperate but adjust if necessary. To trust, but verify.
We generally collaborate with other people because it benefits us. Our rational minds let us work out when we might occasionally gain by acting selfishly instead.
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2,000 decisions per waking hour
Research has shown that the typical person makes about 2,000 decisions every waking hour. Most are minor ones and we make them automatically. But many have serious consequences.
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Decision fatigue
Our ability to perform mental tasks and make decisions wears thin when it’s repeatedly used.
Identify the most important decisions you need to make, and, as often as possible, prioritize your time so that you make them when your energy levels are highest.
A steady state of distraction
Our brains process five times as much information today as in 1986. Thus, many of us live in a continuous state of distraction and struggle to focus.
To counter this, find time each day to unplug and step back from email, social media and news.
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