What Is Your Gut Feeling Telling You?

Gut feelings often provide insights based on experience, but they are not reliable without analysis.

If you ask a child whether there is danger around him, he might or might not recognize it, so he will likely respond with his dominant human instinct—fight, flight, or freeze out of fear.

If you ask a child to spend $100 on a product that appreciates in value, such as a watch, jewelry, or a stock, he will likely invest where he has seen his parents place value.

In another example, a soccer game against a familiar team, you might have a feeling whether you'll win based on your past experience with the team.

But against a new team, your gut feeling can be unreliable and misleading.

Your confidence can be influenced by how you compare to the other team, whether you are better or worse.

Gut feeling is a subconscious analysis that improves with experience.

You only trust your gut only if you've encountered a similar experience multiple times.