Summary: Researchers find that decisions made by intuition—our gut feelings—are more likely to be seen as expressions of the true self and are held with greater certainty.
Source: American Psychological Association
Why do some people trust their gut over careful reasoning? New research suggests that when people rely on intuition, they view those snap choices as better reflections of their true selves, which in turn increases their certainty and willingness to advocate for those choices.
Researchers Sam Maglio, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and Taly Reich, PhD, an assistant professor of marketing at Yale University, examined how decision-making style—feelings versus deliberation—affects attitudes, certainty and behavior. Their findings were published in the journal Emotion.
Across four experiments with more than 450 participants—including community members, undergraduate students and online respondents—participants chose among similar items (for example, DVD players, mugs, apartments or restaurants). In each study, people were asked to make a selection either by relying on deliberation and logic or by following their intuition and gut feelings. After choosing, participants answered questions about how they saw their choice and how certain they felt about it.
Those instructed to use intuition were more likely to report that their decision reflected their true selves. They also reported greater attitude certainty and were more willing to defend and promote their choices. In one study, participants who chose a restaurant based on intuition were more likely to email friends to tell them about the choice, demonstrating that intuition not only shapes attitudes but can change behavior.
“We offer what we believe to be a novel and unique approach to the question of why people come to hold certain attitudes,” Maglio said. “Focusing on feelings as opposed to logic in the decision-making process led participants to hold more certain attitudes toward and advocate more strongly for their choices.”
Maglio emphasized that decision makers face two questions: not only what to choose, but how to choose it. “Our research suggests that when people focus on feelings during decision-making, they come to see their chosen options as more consistent with what is essential and true about themselves,” he said.
The findings highlight both benefits and risks of gut-based decision-making. When gut-driven choices align with healthy or productive habits—selecting a form of exercise you feel drawn to, for example—greater certainty can support persistence and better outcomes. However, when deeply felt but unexamined preferences shape political opinions or divisive attitudes, that same certainty can fuel polarization and reduce openness to alternative views.
“There’s little downside and a lot of benefit when gut-driven conviction helps us stick to a positive habit,” Maglio said. “But when intuition creates strong political certainty, it can shut down consideration of other perspectives. In those cases, the openness facilitated by deliberation may be valuable.”
The studies combined insights from research on the “true self” and attitude certainty to develop a process model: relying on feelings (versus deliberation) makes people see their choices as reflecting their true selves, which strengthens attitude certainty and increases advocacy for the chosen option. The research included checks for alternative explanations and tested robustness across different choices and participant groups.
Source: Jim Sliwa – American Psychological Association
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research: “Feeling Certain: Gut Choice, the True Self, and Attitude Certainty” by Sam Maglio, PhD, and Taly Reich, PhD in Emotion. Published September 10, 2018.
doi: 10.1037/emo0000490
Abstract
Feeling Certain: Gut Choice, the True Self, and Attitude Certainty
Decisions need not always be deliberative. People can instead recruit gut feelings and evaluate options according to how they feel about them rather than how they think about them. Reliance on feelings can change what people choose, but does that strategy also change how people evaluate their chosen options? This investigation integrates research on the true self and on attitude certainty to answer that question. Four studies support a process model in which focusing on feelings (vs. deliberation) causes people to see their true selves reflected in their choices (Studies 1 and 2), which leads to greater attitude certainty (Study 3) and to stronger advocacy for that attitude (Study 4). The research includes robustness checks and addresses alternative explanations, highlighting new insights where feeling-focused decision-making, attitudes, and conceptions of the true self intersect.