Here's When You Should Trust Your Gut

Trusting your gut may not sound like a reliable way to make decisions, but the research points to some times when you might want to listen to it!

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[berglettemom]

My daughter trusted her gut when she fell in love with a terrible looking black cat at the shelter. He was so skinny, greasy and dirty, and must have been so matted when he was found that most of his body had been shaved. Nearly a year later, he is big and fluffy, absolutely shiny and stunningly gorgeous, and the nicest, most affectionate cat any of us has ever known. It took a long time to get him healthy (*his* gut was loaded with parasites) but nothing has ever been so worthwhile. I’m so glad she couldn’t stop thinking about him and adopted him.

[elenagibbons]

When you have a multiple choice test and pick the answer you have a gut feeling about, think about it some more, and pick another answer but your first one was right all along.

[LulitaInPita]

I chose my horse on gut intuition even though he nearly kicked me off the first time I tried him. He turned out to be the kindest, sweetest, smartest and most talented horse I've ever owned. A once in a lifetime horse! :)

[phantomstrider]

I've always wondered how psychologists analyse our concept of intuition. Much obliged

[TheNinToaster]

I wish my gut feeling wasn't always a sense of constant tension and anxiety...

[nihilisticpancakeface]

*sees rubber lego tire

Gut: Chew
Me: Why?
Gut: You gotta

[alexixeno]

One of the wierdest instances of gut instincs for me was when I was in high school, we had purchased some fireworks and were of course outside lighting them. Now I had two fireworks set up, the type that shoot flares up into the sky like roman candles. they were a bit above me on a raised platform as I laid on the ground trying to light them both. I knew I would be mostly safe from the shots as I was below the muzzles and they were both secure. But as I'm trying to light them one just won't light, I'm sitting there trying desperately to get it to work when suddenly without thinking I twist myself around so I'm on my back and start kicking away from the fireworks quickly. And good thing I did, a moment later the first firework exploded, it had been packed upside down or something so instead of launching up, just went boom. though... at least it lit the other firework? But yeah I was lucky to move when I did else my face would have been point blank.

[Carlos-xsks]

This video about "gut feelings" was surprisingly easy to digest!

[hywodena]

As someone who works with horses (it's very dangerous at times), my gut has saved my life multiple times. Just last week, I was turning out a horse that is known for being dangerous and kicking. As I was leading him I thought to myself "he seems pretty calm today". When I went to let the horse go he still seemed calm, but my gut told me to duck, and sure enough, the moment the halter was off the horse he turned and bucked, his hind hoof striking where my head had been just a second before.

[ginnyjollykidd]

If a firefighter told me to leave, I'd do it whether they turned out to be right or wrong or if I could swear they were wrong. It doesn't hurt to follow their instructions, and it could easily save lives. And if a boss gigged me for doing so, I can always blame the firefighter. And if that didn't get me off the hook, ANYTHING is better than losing one's life in a fire!

[hw]

I highly recommend the book "The Gift of Fear". It talks about how we as humans have developed our inituition to keep us safe and that it shouldn't be ignored. Everyone should read it, but I do think it's more intended for women.

[panjoshua]

"Apparently they weren't feeling too creative that day" lmfao

[jerald]

This is exactly how I viewed gut feeling and intuition for a long while now but had trouble finding easy-to-understand exlanations to explain it to others. Thanks for this!

[ndbld]

I was riding motorcycles with a group of friends. I was just behind the leader and I had a very strong feeling that I should back off and give a good amount of space between him and me. Once I got to where I felt comfortable a deer ran out in the rode and that guy hit it and crashed. If I would have been where I was I would have ran him over and crashed too

[cellogirlrw]

"I've got a bad feeling about this. . ."

-Every jedi in Star Wars

[Gramr]

In shooters the enemies always come when you think you should move away from a spot. But really exactly in that second. Always.

[Master_Therion]

I wish I had listened to my gut feeling and not eaten that item from the vending machine.
Now I'm listening to AND feeling my gut 🤢

[nafsi]

I always trust my gut feeling. I'm a logical person but I like to trust my gut when it tells otherwise.

[LaineyBug]

My parents refused to believe my gut reactions to some people from my church, a couple of whom were my age. They thought I was being mean because they weren't 'popular', but really neither was I. I stubbornly kept up my refusal to interact with them and a couple years later some really bad stuff went down with one of them and some of the younger kids and he went to prison. The other family, around the same time, was revealed to be manipulating a bunch of people and some families broke up permanently because of them. I told my parents I didn't ever want them trying to shame me for following my gut again! This while I was still in highschool. I think kids should be trained to listen to their instincts more instead of molding to social norms.

[MakeMeThinkAgain]

There's an even more interesting aspect of this, though it would be hard to conduct meaningful experiments. Clausewitz maintained that the best military commanders are intuitive rather than analytical because they always have to deal with situations where, because of the "fog of battle, " they never have all the information they need (and some of the information they have is wrong) but they still have to make an instant decision. Some people are somehow able to make these good decisions most of the time.