If Logic Tells You Otherwise, Ignore Your Gut

People like to think their gut feeling is the best guide, but new research in the Perspectives of Psychological Science shows the gut might actually overwhelm logic in decision making.Photo by juliaklarman.

The brain, it turns out, is wired early on with an intuitive sense of logic, but we often ignore it to go with our gut reaction, which often means people let their stereotypes rule the action. When making these decisions, people still have a sense that something is off but don’t let logic prevail in the decision. In his paper, psychological scientist Wim De Neys suggests keeping an eye on your own habits:

It’s important to know which component of the process is faulty.” For example, if you want to understand why people are smoking, and you think it’s because they don’t understand the logic — that smoking kills — you might put a lot of energy into explaining how smoking is bad for them, when the actual problem is addiction.

Both your gut reaction and logic are playing an intuitive role in your decision making. Make certain you know which one you’re listening to.

People Don’t Just Think With Their Guts: Logic Plays a Role, Too [ScienceDaily]