Do You Trust Your Intuition?
Posted on Mar 6th, 2008
by 
WH
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Researchers think that you should.
Intuition Is More Than Just A Hunch, According To Leeds Research
Most of us experience 'gut feelings' we can't explain, such as instantly loving - or hating - a new property when we're househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings - or intuitions - are real and we should take our hunches seriously.
According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.
There are many recorded incidences where intuition prevented catastrophes and cases of remarkable recoveries when doctors followed their gut feelings. Yet science has historically ridiculed the concept of intuition, putting it in the same box as parapsychology, phrenology and other 'pseudoscientific' practices.
Through analysis of a wide range of research papers examining the phenomenon, the researchers conclude that intuition is the brain drawing on past experiences and external cues to make a decision - but one that happens so fast the reaction is at a non-conscious level. All we're aware of is a general feeling that something is right or wrong.
"People usually experience true intuition when they are under severe time pressure or in a situation of information overload or acute danger, where conscious analysis of the situation may be difficult or impossible," says Prof Hodgkinson.
He cites the recorded case of a Formula One driver who braked sharply when nearing a hairpin bend without knowing why - and as a result avoided hitting a pile-up of cars on the track ahead, undoubtedly saving his life.
"The driver couldn't explain why he felt he should stop, but the urge was much stronger than his desire to win the race," explains Professor Hodgkinson. "The driver underwent forensic analysis by psychologists afterwards, where he was shown a video to mentally relive the event. In hindsight he realised that the crowd, which would have normally been cheering him on, wasn't looking at him coming up to the bend but was looking the other way in a static, frozen way. That was the cue. He didn't consciously process this, but he knew something was wrong and stopped in time."
Prof Hodgkinson believes that all intuitive experiences are based on the instantaneous evaluation of such internal and external cues - but does not speculate on whether intuitive decisions are necessarily the right ones.
"Humans clearly need both conscious and non-conscious thought processes, but it's likely that neither is intrinsically 'better' than the other," he says.
As a Chartered occupational psychologist, Prof Hodgkinson is particularly interested in the impact of intuition within business, where many executives and managers claim to use intuition over deliberate analysis when a swift decision is required. "We'd like to identify when business people choose to switch from one mode to the other and why - and also analyse when their decision is the correct one. By understanding this phenomenon, we could then help organisations to harness and hone intuitive skills in their executives and managers."
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centre for organisational strategy learning and ch
March 2008 
Loved this!
Intuition should be used with caution, however; especially intuition about people. For example, gut instincts on whether to trust or not to trust a stranger may be based on accurate subconscious cues, such as detecting subtleties in voice or tone that conote deception. However, it's also possible that a person simply bears a striking resemblance to someone else that you disliked, and the perception can be totally unconscious. So an integration of intuition with salient data is probably the wisest course of action over time.
Our educational social training is to ignore or play-down the intuitive side. And in my spiritual path I've learned how not listening to my intuition can result in accidents, much stress and detours. And I waited a little too long to buy the Book of Alan seal, who left a comment in my site early on. I loved his book intuitive path!
These studies are fascinating, confirming what we intuitively know. :)
I've also read studies showing that intuition can tell us whether a relationship will work or fail, and with better results than when people are asked to verbally reason about it. See here for more details: http://spiritualinquiry.com/articles/trust-your-intuition-dont-think-about-love/
It's a pitty that Carl Jung could not come up with a different term for his Cognitive Functions labeled Introverted or extroverted Intuition which are still used in common typologies like MBTI and socionics, because this surely causes some misunderstandings. When i tell people that (this) intuition is my main mode of processing things, they get a verry wrong idea and must think that i am lying.Then again his choice might have been right and the other version, the popular “intuition” should be labeled differently: Instinct. But i guess a biologist would object to that.