Intuition: Why We Should Listen to Our Gut Feeling More Often

It meets us every day and we probably use it more often than we realize or admit. Whether choosing lunch in the canteen, in sports or in planning the next career steps. In most major and minor daily decisions, intuition is our secret companion. Numerous studies conclude that decisions made intuitively often lead to greater satisfaction, explains the Regensburg neurologist and psychiatrist, Prof. Dr. Volker Busch.

So, is intuition really the proverbial gut feeling?

In common language use, we usually treat them as equivalent. Academically speaking, a gut feeling is more of a superficial, quick sense. Intuition, on the other hand, is real experiential knowledge. An inner perspective that lets us decide whether something is good or bad for us. That is more developed and much deeper.

How does intuition arise?

The main tasks of the human brain are: to perceive the environment with the senses, to store the impressions gained, to make predictions, and to derive meaningful actions from all of this. In the course of life, it builds up a huge wealth of experience. Like a giant library. The archivist is the hippocampus, which creates the card system. As far as we know, an intuitive process then works as follows: In the respective life situation, it is checked whether there was something similar in the past. The results are then passed on, among other things, to the prefrontal cortex – this is where decisions are made. If something is identified as familiar, the probability is high that the new situation will be compared to it, the experience reactivated, and a course of action derived from it. However, this has not yet been researched down to the last detail.

Does every person have it?

There is no person who does not have intuition, as we all constantly gain experiences and our brain is programmed to store and evaluate them. But of course, there are differences between people. And in old age or with dementia, it can be somewhat lost – then the experiences are still there, but the card index system has broken down and nothing can be found immediately.

It is said that intuition is typically feminine, is that true?

This is probably related to the fact that we allow intuition to varying degrees in different areas of life: When it comes to business, it is often denied. In matters of love or in private life, we are more willing to admit that we did not rely on facts. I believe intuition is more often attributed to women because even today business decisions are often connoted as male, while decisions related to love and feelings are associated with women. This is neither fair nor correct, because men can also decide very intuitively. And it has never been proven either. What is true, however, is that women are more likely to admit to having made intuitive decisions.

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Shouldn't intuition be used more often in business as well? 

Yes and no. Yes, when the situation becomes too complex. Because at a certain critical mass of arguments, we seem to check out mentally. Then it's better to reduce the complexity and say: Away with all the numbers and facts! Let's listen to our gut. What do we know from the past that is good for us?

And what speaks against it?

Intuition is always good when we come into situations that are similar to past experiences. In a world as it is today, constantly presenting us with new problems that we haven't had before—keyword supply bottlenecks, Corona, climate change—an intuition from a situation in the 1990s may be of little use. Old experiences don't always lead to good decisions for new developments. New problems require new solutions, which are better obtained through facts.

When should one mistrust their intuition? 

When too many emotions are involved. Anger, sadness, but also exultant euphoria can cloud one's vision. It's better to sleep on it until the emotions have cooled down. If you still stand by the decision then, the inner voice becomes more audible again.

Are there also physical signals? 

The heartbeat, the butterflies in the stomach, the hairs on the neck standing up—it's called somatic marking. This makes a feeling so strong in consciousness that it can no longer be ignored. That's probably the point: So that we don't overlook intuition, it is occasionally physically marked, making it more impactful.

Can intuition also warn us?

Yes, if there is a corresponding note in the library of experience. Famous example: In 1950, during the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1 driver Juan Manuel Fangio drove into the tunnel. But instead of accelerating as usual, he braked. Hundreds of meters later, he saw an accident involving several cars. So why did he brake so early? The situation was different from usual – that's what his brain reported. In his library of experience, it said that spectators always look at the drivers coming out of the tunnel – this time, however, the heads were turned in the other direction. If he had driven through the tunnel for the first time, there probably wouldn't have been a corresponding note in his library.

Is intuition learnable?

Yes, but only to some extent. Someone who has been socialized to derive security from arguments and facts throughout their life will not become a gut person. But they can learn to free themselves somewhat from information and give more attention to the inner voice. And practice listening to it. Then you quickly realize that this can also be a reliable source, and you don't always have to make things difficult for yourself.

Can this inner voice also be trained?

There is no special technique, but there must be a willingness to allow intuition. For this, I need to open the fine channel between myself and my experiences.

How do you do that?

First, turn down the volume of life. Today, whether at the bus stop or during lunch break, we have an external voice that bombards us with something. Even when walking in the forest, many listen to an audiobook. How is an inner voice supposed to emerge then? So, create short downtime phases in which you are also offline. And feel inside yourself. You might then hear other voices that nag, worry, or urge you. But they come from the head. Admittedly, distinguishing them takes some practice – but the true, intuitive voice is always benevolent, never critical.

What else helps?

Make many new experiences. Real ones, not virtual: Only the things we experience ourselves and actively immerse in leave deep memory traces. Then the hippocampus puts new books on the shelf and thus archives the raw material from which intuition arises.

What if our intuition is wrong?

Learn from your mistakes! Take a few minutes at the end of the day and calmly go over the relevant decisions again. What was my expectation? Did everything go as expected? If not, what could it be? This comparison leads to the books in your library being rewritten in some places and kept up to date – an update. Mistakes are therefore inevitable on the way to expertise. They are useful because they improve our intuition – but only if we deal with them.

Is the digital world endangering our intuition?

An example: The astonishing navigation talent of the Inuit through the eternal ice was already described in the 19th century. They passed it on from generation to generation – but for about 20 years they have been using GPS systems on their phones. Since then, accidents among young Inuit have increased because the network is not always stable and experience has hardly been built up. Researchers estimate that the Inuit's knowledge of orientation will be lost in two generations. This applies to all of us. Experience-based intuition is ancient human and still important for our species today.

Listening tip: Podcast by Prof. Dr. Volker Busch, "Gehirn gehört"