Gut Feeling
I’m an INTJ on the Myer-Briggs personality scale to the endless amusement of my kids, who love to point out that this is the super-villain personality. My reply to this is that everyone has a choice to use their powers for good or evil. Anyway, this means that I prioritise thinking, especially rational arguments, over feelings when making decisions. I sometimes also get frustrated when others seem to be ruled by their feelings to their own detriment.
I noticed over the last few years that I seem to be making more decisions based on “gut feeling,” which was strange given my commitment to rational arguments. I thought maybe I was just getting lazy, but in Sönke Ahrens’s “How to Take smart Notes”, he writes “, gut feeling is not a mysterious force, but an incorporated history of experience.” Gut feeling, or intuition, according to Ahrens, results when we have enough accumulated experience to short-circuit the need for slower, long chains of analysis. This was an aha moment for me as it made sense of my growing reliance on gut feeling and reassured me that I didn’t need to second guess these decisions.
Do you rely on a particular process to make decisions? Do you trust your gut?
7 Comments
Meike
I think it depends on the decission. Let’s say it’s about something that you can back with facts like should I get vaccinated or not, then I definitely will look at the data and make my choice based on that (and I mean data not what other people ‘think’ is right). If it’s something like what presents should I get, How I feel about new people I meet – I listen to my gut. If it’s something where to vacation or what Doktor to Pick, it’s a combination of the two.
Elisabeth
Hmm. I would say I AM a gut person…but then I second-guess my gut reaction for ages. Sigh.
I was just reading a book (Think Again by Adam Grant) that found that most people that change their response on a multiple choice test (where they first selected their “gut” answer but then rethink that gut choice) are MORE likely to get it right on their second choice. I thought this was fascinating. I tried to not change my answers on tests, but I would second-guess my gut. And, more often than not, when I DID change my answer, it ended up being right. Not sure how this applies to less black/white decisions which is what I tend to face in adulthood at this point, but it gave me food for thought.
Melissa
Do you think the results for gut vs second thoughts on tests are more to do with the fact that tests are usually measuring new or recently learned information, not years of experience? That would suggest that relying on your gut for areas you don’t have years of experience would not be a good idea.
Jenny
Ha, I can see why your kids are amused at your “super villain” personality type. I’ve heard that before- that “instincts” or gut feelings are really based on accumulted knowledge. I probably over-think my decisions and would be better off going with my “gut” more often. Interesting post!
Suzanne
I tend to be one of those people who over-relies on feelings, so I am always suspicious of my gut. Is it accurate, or not? But I am trying to teach my daughter to pay attention to her gut, because sometimes the body is aware of information that our brains haven’t been able to fully process yet.
San
Oh that is a good question… I think it really depends, because I’ve definitely been in situations where I rationally made a decision based on good argumentation, but my gut still told me that it’s wrong. And then other times of course, your gut will mislead you and if you think about it for a bit, you know that the rational argument will win.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I am a fellow super-villain personality. And I do look at all the arguments before making adecision. However my experience shows that sometimes the facts and figures do make sense on paper but the gut is telling something else. In the past I have not acknoledged that because I had it all figured out and it was the best way to go. So today I try to to do a bit of both. Have my facts and figures straight and then try to see if I have a gut feeling. If it is a bad one I either postpone the decision or not going there…
This process however is more work related.