Throughout our every day life, we face decision after decision. Some decisions aren’t very serious(like what you want to eat) and others can have a big impact on your life(like where you go to college). Regardless of the importance of the decision, just about everyone has a gut feeling that they want to follow.

The Science Behind Gut Feelings

Many people would think that gut feelings are simply something mental that occurs when your mind wants a certain outcome. However, according to Dr. Deepak Chopra, gut feelings truly are something that happen in your stomach. For example, Chopra says that, “If you say ‘I have a gut feeling about such and such’ you’re not speaking metaphorically, you’re speaking literally. Your gut makes the same chemicals that your brain makes when it thinks.”(Chopra) Therefore, if your stomach is making the same chemicals as your brain, it is desiring a certain outcome. But what about the millions of time you are taking a test and second guess your self; why don’t people doubt their gut feeling? As Chopra states, “The nervous system in your gut doesn’t have the ability to doubt itself like your central nervous system does.”(Chopra) To make clear, it is impossible for a human to question a gut feeling because the nervous system in your stomach is much different from your central nervous system.

Is your Gut Feeling right?

Despite the quotes that say, “Your Gut Feeling is Always Right”(like this), in science, the word always is viewed with much trepidation and doubt. To be clear, there is a strong possibility that a short-term feeling is correct because it is usually pertains to human necessities like food or water. Therefore, I will attempt to explain studies that look into long-term feelings and how the affect a person. For example, a study done by, “Alberta School of Business researcher Sarah Moore and colleagues from Duke and Cornell universities say unconscious feelings about objects in the environment influence the pursuit of long-term goals.”(Daily Mail). Since there are very little studies on this topic, let’s first try to explain why.

Why are there so little studies on this topic?

As I was searching the web for this topic, I found very few studies that specifically discussed what I was looking for and a lot of motivational quotes about your gut feeling. My personal favorite was a quote by Oprah herself, “Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.”(BrainyQuote) Alright, now back to the purpose of this blog. The very nature of this topic is extremely complex and doesn’t have a simple answer no matter how many studies that may be performed. Therefore, funding is most likely very low for experiments of this type and isn’t something many scientists would focus on. Another factor that could play a big role in the lack of studies on long-term gut feelings is that there is almost no prior knowledge on this subject. Since there isn’t much of a precedent, it can be quite a daunting for a scientists to essentially start from scratch with very little guidance. Now, let’s dig into the study conducted by Sarah Moore and some colleagues.

Is the Study Wrong?

First, the study looked at the unconscious and how it is able to make decisions about objects in the surrounding area. Furthermore, Moore’s study was designed to see long-term goals, specifically getting an education and getting physically fit. She found that, “For both types of goals, she says, the process is similar in that the unconscious identifies and responds to positively to objects and triggers in the environment that support the goal.”(Daily Mail) The most interesting part to me was a person’s attitude toward a long-term goal, like getting fit, after he or she had ‘failed'(the reason failed is in quotations is because long-term goals are technically never completed). After failure, the person doesn’t, “hate the objects related to the goal because that goal is very important to you in the long run…,” and “… Your unconscious is telling you ‘now is not the time to pursue the goal.”(Daily Mail) After thoroughly going through Moore’s study, I believe that your gut feeling is right almost every time. The reason is because it has your best intentions in mind(or gut, for that matter). So next time you start to feel your gut telling you to do something, you know what to do.