Should you trust your intuition? Well, it depends.
Intuition is often regarded as a sort of sixth sense or infallible means of knowing things and making decisions.
I hear from a lot of highly sensitive people who aim to listen to their intuition, and I also believe intuition is important. There are contexts in which highly sensitive people can really benefit from following their intuitions.
While not proven, it may even be possible that highly sensitive people could have particularly adept intuition (in certain contexts) due to our deep processing and sensitivity to subtleties.
Yet, phrases such as “always go with your gut” and “your intuition never lies” are so commonplace that people don’t pause to consider whether this is always wise advice.
While intuition can play a valuable role in decision-making, it isn’t always the best source of truth. There are many situations where it can lead you astray or even be manipulated by others.
Lets look at what intuition is and how it’s developed in order to discern when to trust your intuition.
What is Intuition?
Before going further, I want to recognize that some view intuition as wisdom from a higher source, or even equate it to an inner voice from one’s authentic self. Both of these ways of seeing intuition are worth discussion, but here we’re working with the widely held way of understanding this concept.
While there’s no universal definition, intuition is generally understood as the ability to know something without the use of conscious reasoning. It’s an embodied reaction or gut feeling that just feels right or wrong to you, even if you don’t know exactly how you know.
Intuition can also be thought of as a faster, pre-cognitive way of thinking that is built by both evolution and life experiences. Our minds and bodies evolved together, gaining the ability to understand the world and then use that understanding in order to survive and procreate.
Rather than the primal instincts we’re born with or the kind of memory recall associated with conscious thought, intuition is more about certain types of learned knowledge that we’ve embodied, and then feel guided by in certain situations.
These feelings, grounded in past experiences, allow us to make predictions and decisions quickly without having to engage conscious thought or analytical skills.
Intuition can be an incredibly powerful guide, but it’s also context-dependent.
How Intuition Can Go Wrong
It’s important to know that intuition also has the potential to get “confused”, leading to mistaken assumptions or misleading judgments.
Intuitive feelings can be prone to error due to our biases. Something as abstract as a belief or political identity can become embodied and automated as a fast-felt reaction. So, when we hear about an idea, our learned intuitive reactions can give us a strong inclination one way or the other.
These reactions can do damage and misguide us. For example, they can show up as racial bias (because we learned the wrong associations), confirmation bias (because we really want something to be true), or groupthink (because we got swept up in the energy of a crowd).
The problems that come from overly trusting your intuition are also partly a result of the modern world being so vastly different from the world in which we evolved. Before the complexities of modern civilization, we could more easily trust our intuitions to be broadly applicable in the kinds of contexts in which we were likely to find ourselves.
But in today’s world, with its nearly endless specializations, artificial environments, and vast infosphere, it’s less and less likely that we can apply our intuitions broadly.
Intuitions can help you make faster choices, reduce cognitive load, and can even save your life, but discernment about when to trust them is essential.
When to Trust Your Intuition
If you find yourself in a situation that evolution couldn’t have prepared you for, or that you are not experienced with or trained to understand, then view your intuitions with a healthy dose of skepticism. A few examples might help here…
Intuitions can be useful in these contexts:
- Making simple choices (ex: ordering off a restaurant menu).
- Listening to your body’s needs (when to rest, move, eat, etc.)
- Performing tasks in which you have ample training and experience (being honest about this is key!).
- Assessing your personal safety (be sure to check your biases, early and often).
- Searching for greater meaning or purpose in one’s life (watch out for narcissistic leaders).
Intuitions should be questioned in these contexts:
- When trying to understand medical advice or scientific research from a field in which you are not highly trained (particularly if it’s a polarized matter).
- When absorbing information from a source that is optimized for engagement (TV news, social media, opinionated talking heads, etc.).
- When anyone with power or charisma is trying to convince you of something (politicians, cults of personality, influencers, etc.).
Some of these latter examples may be quite subtle, which is why it’s critical to take a step back and consider what might be happening.
While you don’t want to trust your intuition across all situations, it is wise to listen to it.
When intuition is honed over time, it may offer information that can help you make better decisions in some situations.
Furthermore, you tend to overthink simple decisions, you might benefit from learning to follow your intuition more often to avoid analysis paralysis.
Let’s also keep in mind that intuition and conscious reasoning are not diametrically opposed. Thankfully, they’re working in conjunction with each other most of the time.
My partner, Jason Brashares, contributed to this article.
Sources
Cademenos, A. (2022, January 26).
Garrett, R.K. & Weeks, B.E. (2017, September 18). Epistemic beliefs’ role in promoting misperceptions and conspiracist ideation. PLOS. Retrieved April 18, 2023 from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0184733#sec013
Kutsch, L. (2019, Can We Rely on Our Intuition? Scientific American. Retrieved February 17, 2023 from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-we-rely-on-our-intuition/
Sutton, J. (2020, August 27). What Is Intuition and Why Is It Important? 5 Examples. Positive Psychology. Retrieved February 17, 2023 from https://positivepsychology.com/intuition/
Van Mulukom, V. (2018, May 16). Is it rational to trust your gut feelings? A neuroscientist explains. The Conversation. Retrieved February 28, 2023 from https://theconversation.com/is-it-rational-to-trust-your-gut-feelings-a-neuroscientist-explains-95086
(Photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash).