Intuition - the
idea that individuals can make successful decisions without deliberate
analytical thought - has intrigued philosophers and scientists since at least
the times of the ancient Greeks. But scientists have had trouble finding
quantifiable evidence that intuition actually exists.
Many people use the phrase ‘intuition’ to describe a sensation or
feeling they have when making decisions, but these are only descriptions, they
do not provide strong evidence that we can use unconscious information in our
brain or body to guide our behaviour.
To measure intuition, the researchers designed an experiment in which
participants were exposed to emotional images outside conscious awareness as
they attempted to make accurate decisions. The results of the study demonstrate
that even when people were unaware of the images, they were still able to use
information from the images to make more confident and accurate decisions.
The data suggest that we can use unconscious information in our body or
brain to help guide us through life, to enable better decisions, faster
decisions, and be more confident in the decisions we make.
In an experiment, groups of college students were shown stimuli composed
of a cloud of many moving dots, which looked like the noisy “snow” you might
see on an old television. Participants had to report which general direction
the cloud of dots was moving in, left or right.
While our subjects were making these decisions, they were presented in
one of their eyes with emotional photographs, then they utilized another
technique called continuous flash suppression to render these emotional
photographs invisible or unconscious. “So, while the subjects were making these
sensory decisions, they never knew they were being presented with these
emotional photographs.
Participants were fitted with a mirror stereoscope during the
experiment, which allowed the continuous flash suppression to mask emotional
images in the other eye.
The emotion-provoking photographs included both positive images, like
adorable puppies, as well as disturbing negative images, such as a snake about
to strike. The type of image, positive or negative, indicated which direction
the cloud of dots was moving.
Across four different experiments, the researchers found that people
were able to make faster and more accurate decisions when they unconsciously
viewed the emotional images. Essentially, people’s brains were able to process
and utilize information from the images to improve their decisions.
Another interesting finding in this study is that intuition improved
over time, suggesting that the mechanisms of intuition can be improved with
practice.
Additional evidence for intuition came from participants’ physiological
data. In one experiment, the researchers measured participants’ skin conductance
- an indicator of physiological arousal - as they made decisions about the
swarm of dots. In an exciting finding, the researchers observed that skin
conductance predicted behavioural intuition; that is, even when people were not
aware of the images, their bodies showed a physiological reaction to the
emotional content of the stimuli.
The ability to quantitatively measure intuition could be a boon to many different fields, especially when it comes to workplace hiring. This could be applied in the workplace, taking the place of existing questionnaires which really only test people’s opinions about their own feelings of intuition.
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