Why Your ‘Intuition’ May Be a Lie
Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow is making me reconsider my stance on gut feelings
This may be controversial, but I’ve always been a bit skeptical of “intuition.” I mean, have you ever tried intuitive eating? If I trusted my body to make food choices that felt good for me in the moment, I would wake up and eat an entire pan of brownies every day. But actually.
What even is intuition or “gut feelings?”
The Oxford Dictionary defines intuition as “The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.” It’s the feeling of knowing something without knowing why we know it. It’s the stuff of “I felt like I shouldn’t go in there, and then the whole building blew up” tales. It’s those itchy little feelings that don’t have any logical basis but somehow resonate as truth.
Is intuition something spiritual? Magical? Are there certain people, like cops or gurus, who are just blessed with extra-sensitive guts? Or is intuition complete nonsense, something no rational person should take into consideration?
In Thinking Fast and Slow (which I’m still in the middle of but I’ve completely come around on, it’s a fantastic book), Daniel Kahneman proposes a two-system model for how the mind works. He calls them System 1 and System 2. (Pretty creative, I know.)
System 1 is the “knee-jerk” system, the type that makes decisions and judgments so fast, that you don’t even know it’s happening.
This would include things like recognizing faces, driving a familiar route, reading, and naming colors—things that you can do pretty much on autopilot without having to think too much about.
System 2 is the logical, rational system that operates more slowly and deliberately: the “conscious mind.”
This would include things like solving complex math problems, learning a new skill, critical thinking, and decision-making—the kinds of things that take more effort and mental input.
What makes the book such a fascinating, eye-opening read is the premise that many of the decisions we make and the feelings we have are based on the speedy processes of System 1 without us even knowing it.
Consider the following problem that Kahneman presents in his book:
Now let’s pretend for a moment that this was not presented right after an introduction about quick thinking. Just answer the question intuitively.
Most people will likely guess that the ball costs $0.10, but that's incorrect (the correct answer is $0.05). What led to this mistake?
Your fast, intuitive System 1—the primal part of your brain—jumped to a quick, “good enough” conclusion.
It wasn't until your slow, analytical System 2 kicked in that you grasped why $0.05 is the accurate answer. (People seem to unconsciously substitute the “more than” statement in the problem (the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball) with an absolute statement (the bat costs $1.00). This makes the math easier to work with; if a ball and bat together cost $1.10 and the bat costs $1.00, then the ball must cost 10 cents.)
Did your brain deceive you? Are you lacking in math skills? Not at all. This is your brain functioning precisely as designed, influenced by System 1—whose primary goal is to get you the most likely answer with the least amount of effort.
System 1 might be the hare to the tortoise of System 2, but that doesn’t mean that it always comes in last. The truth is that System 1, our quick decisions and first impressions, are often right. The reason we don't tend to doubt them is because most of the time they help us out efficiently without needing to pause and think. Whether it's tying our shoes or making a sandwich, our minds quickly find the information we need from a big mental database when we face a problem or situation.
In Think Again, Adam Grant shares a story about a firefighter facing a burning house. After attempting to extinguish the fire for a few minutes, he urgently ordered his team to evacuate the building. Moments later, the basement collapsed entirely. When asked how he knew they should leave, he initially attributed it to a gut feeling. However, upon deeper reflection, he realized that he had sensed the unusually hot floor and subconsciously deduced that the fire was beneath them. This realization dawned on him so rapidly that he hadn't consciously recognized the thought process behind it. But it was clear—his gut feeling hadn’t come from his gut—it came from quick thinking—the thinking of System 1.
System 1 bypasses conscious thought and helps us understand a situation immediately. Sounds a lot like the definition of intuition, doesn’t it?
Much of what we perceive as intuition is simply lightning-speed System 1 processing occurring in our subconscious. It's not magical or paranormal, it's our hidden thoughts whispering from our unconscious mind.
Because of Think Again and Thinking Fast and Slow (as well as Rationality by Steven Pinker but we’ll talk about that another time), I’ve been trying to question my thoughts and intuitions more closely to see where they are coming from and what they’re based on.
One night last week, while driving home, I reached a place in the road with two options: continue straight or turn onto a side road I often use during the day because it's faster. My instinct was to continue straight. I just had a “feeling” that it was the right way to go. Was this feeling a divine intervention leading me down the literal “right path?” Delving deeper into my thoughts, I pondered the uneasy feeling I had about the side road and I realized the reason behind my hesitation: The side road was dimly lit and winding, while the main road was well-lit, wide, and straight. It became clear that my decision wasn't being driven by intuition; it was a logical choice to opt for the safer and more illuminated route at night. What had initially seemed like a “gut feeling” was just a system that had thought fast.
So while I've often been skeptical about relying on intuition (and I still don’t think intuitive eating is for me), maybe it's time for me to reconsider. Although I don't believe that gut feelings come from a mystical source, I'm starting to see them as conscious tips of icebergs, with logical thoughts forming the larger mass beneath the surface. Just like an iceberg reveals only a fraction of its size above water, our gut feelings may only hint at the deeper, subconscious processes at play. By acknowledging and trusting these intuitive nudges, I might be tapping into a reservoir of knowledge and experience that lies beneath the surface of my conscious awareness. Embracing intuition doesn't mean abandoning logic; rather, it means recognizing the intricate interplay between conscious and subconscious thought processes and being conscious of the subconscious.
Have a great week and keep reading,
Arty
Also: There are so many more compelling points, studies, and examples from Thinking Fast and Slow that I want to share, but I think you should read the book for yourself. Don’t get discouraged by the first couple of chapters—it gets better.
What did you read over Shabbos?
A selection of shared Shabbos reads
I want a pan of brownies, now.
No, really...
I am one those peoples who likes to "trust my gut," but as I have said before, I am not always reliable...and that's something important to remember, right? I trust myself when my intuition says that something is not safe (because I'd rather be wrong than sorry). But I'm immediately thinking of dozens of times when my intuition was way off!
I do think in the beginning of my recovery intuitive eating as a theory was helpful because I did need that very basic rule of "eat when your body is hungry." But now that I've made strides I rely on that theory less and less. We know that we should eat when hungry and don't rely on simply intuition any more, we've also got to rely on the parts of our educated brain that says brownies are good but so is broccoli.
And you've given yet another book! What am I going to do?? lol