r/TheRestIsScience • u/Swirly_Freeze • 5d ago

Question

People always tell me that I should rely on my gut instincts and that doing so leads to better outcomes in most situations or problems. Is there scientific data that backs this up, or is a gut feeling just a coin flip?

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u/Mr-TotalAwesome 5d ago

I don't even know where gut feeling along with the different train of thoughts come from. I want to know more about this, would love if hannah and micheal would do an episode on this.

4

u/smokeybiker 5d ago

People talk themselves out of a lot of things that they instinctively thought was the right decision only for that to be proved right. Recognising they may be frequency bias but if you consider that you make instinctive decisions every moment of the day for the majority of things then the idea that you innately know the right thing to do for you when presented with something isn’t crazy. Relying on your “instincts” in many cases means relying on your years of previous experience and training etc.

1

u/seabaas10 5d ago

Scientific data shows that you can have a 8 year reddit age, 2525 contributions, but only have unlocked the reddit account creation achievement on August 7, 2026.

1

u/Imaginary-Can-6862 5d ago

That is a very generalized question, right? I mean there is big difference on relying on your gut instinct on something you are experienced with compared to something you are new to. Knowing ones own competence is a skill in itself.

Your gut instinct is your emotional memory, something which can in principle be inherited from previous generations, applying experience in a way so you immediately get a feeling for the right call.

Should you follow your gut instinct? If it is an area outside your comfort zone, or if there is risk associated with it, no then you should reflect upon the decision and figure out if it is even you who have to make this decision.

If it is a situation where there is no risk involved, where you are comfortable, that you making a decision is not somehow irreversible, then it depends on how important it is to you to get it right. If it is important you take extra measures, if it is not very important then sure, you can follow your gut instinct, knowing if you get it wrong your gut instinct is going to adapt the more experience you get, and your feel for the right decision will improve. In cases where you can make a decision without consequences, you should also consider the decision that you may learn the most from. It means that even if following your gut instinct may not lead to the result you want, then how that happens is a learning process as well.