Now showing items tagged decision making

Sometimes you just ‘know’. In the absence of evidence, logic and often common sense, all of us experience a deeply felt certainty that seems to defy all of our standard principles of decision-making. Despite this, we can’t help but be led by these gut instincts, and they play a larger role in the formation of our beliefs, opinions and decisions that we realise.

Far from being the rationally operating, pragmatic agents we like to believe we are, more often than not our decisions arise from the seat of our emotions. Our sense of certainty in reaching conclusions and making choices is far more connected to our impulses, emotional reactions and bodily sensations than we think. Rather than being quickly overridden by rational analysis, our emotions are a driving force in our behaviour, and are often the surest guarantee of our response.