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The argument I've heard about intuition, put forth in Gavin de Becker's book The Gift Of Fear, is that the unconscious mind is capable of collecting and synthes

The argument I've heard about intuition, put forth in Gavin de Becker's book The Gift Of Fear, is that the unconscious mind is capable of collecting and synthesizing much more data from the world around us than the conscious mind can focus on. He admittedly leans on anecdote more than large studies but it all seems very plausible to me. When your conscious brain tells you everything is fine, but your intuition tells you something is wrong, you should "listen to your gut" because it (your subconscious) has likely picked up on as signal your conscious mind ignored. Everyone from sales/marketers to con-men to actual predators knows how to manipulate the signals that the conscious brain focuses on, but it's much more difficult to trick the unconscious with social signals. I am not an expert in the field so take with a grain of salt, but it seems to match up with my experience that "trusting your gut" when you meet a new person and get a "bad vibe" is generally good advice.

ryandvm 5y ago
This might be true, but with the caveat that your subconscious mind is likely not so worried about the ethical implications of its decision making. So your "I've got a bad feeling about this" intuition might be because your subconscious picked up on somebody's suspicious behavior, or maybe it's just because you're in a different cultural environment than you usually occupy.
- ghostpepper 5y ago
  I think learning to tell the difference between healthy discomfort and unhealthy is a very important skill. There are multiple examples in that book of ways in which a predator will tailor their behavior in ways to make the victim feel social pressure to act in ways that would facilitate harm to the victim. eg. tailgating someone through a secure door by making them feel rude for not holding the door for you. At the same time, some of the most valuable life experiences come from pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe the advice is better expressed as "learn to listen to your intuition" rather than "always follow your intuition"?
dSebastien 5y ago
This point is also the central one in the book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell.

ryandvm 5y ago

This might be true, but with the caveat that your subconscious mind is likely not so worried about the ethical implications of its decision making. So your "I've got a bad feeling about this" intuition might be because your subconscious picked up on somebody's suspicious behavior, or maybe it's just because you're in a different cultural environment than you usually occupy.

ghostpepper 5y ago
I think learning to tell the difference between healthy discomfort and unhealthy is a very important skill. There are multiple examples in that book of ways in which a predator will tailor their behavior in ways to make the victim feel social pressure to act in ways that would facilitate harm to the victim. eg. tailgating someone through a secure door by making them feel rude for not holding the door for you. At the same time, some of the most valuable life experiences come from pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe the advice is better expressed as "learn to listen to your intuition" rather than "always follow your intuition"?

dSebastien 5y ago

This point is also the central one in the book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell.