Imagine yourself in a test situation. You are sitting there hesitating between two choices﹣A or C.
Your instincts tell you that A is right but you think that C makes more sense. When you get your paper back you find out that A was correct and you regret not picking it, and you think, "I should have followed my instincts(本能).
Most of the time we think our instincts are not as reliable as facts but scientists have just discovered that our instincts are surprisingly powerful tools, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Instincts don't come out of nowhere. When we make decisions, we weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of each choice. But when we make our choices based on our instincts, we actually go through the same process without realizing it. "A lot of our decision﹣making and a lot of our feeling are based on things that we're not really aware of, "said Sarah Moore, professor in University of Alberta, Canada.
In order to find out how accurate people's instinct can be, Professor Marius Usher of Tel Aviv University in Israel and his team designed an experiment to test it.
In the experiment, people who were shown pairs of numbers on a computer screen, two pairs at a time. They were then asked to choose which of the two pairs of numbers had the highest average. But the fact is that the numbers changed so quickly that they were unable to memorize the numbers or do the math. They had to depend only on their instincts to make decisions.
Scientists found something amazing as the experiment went on﹣the people's accuracy increased when they were shown more pairs of numbers. When shown six pairs of numbers the people chose correctly 65 percent of the time. But when they were shown 24 pairs the accuracy rate grew to about 90 percent.
"Intuitively, the human brain is able to take in many pieces of information and decide on an overall value" said Usher.
Next time, when you are having a difficult time making decisions simply follow your instincts.
There is a good chance that they will help you make the right choice.
