Most of time people second guess themselves. They always think about “what could have been”, “what if I did this”. The main problem about difficult decisions is making a choice in life that you will never know the outcome if you chose to do something differently.
Turns out that recent studies have concluded that we as humans have two operating systems that determine how we decide to do things. The first system described is fast instinctual responses that is controlled by our right side of the brain. The second system that humans have to make a decision slower, causing you to think more analytically about the situation rather that a first gut response. This is controlled by our left side of our brain. Now most people would see this information and say “well it’s obvious what system we want to choose, the slower analytical one since it uses logic and reason to get results.” Now if you are one of these people you might not be as right as you think. It is true that using reason and analytical methods are good but it turns out that the instinctive side already has the answer before the second system has sense of it. The instinctual side of your brain tends to make you more stressed when you approach a more dangerous act like the example provided in the study. The instinctive side has the correct answer based on the situation because the more risky a situation is the, the more stress is put on your body.
This study then overlaps with another study talking about how animals in the wild never second guess their instincts since it is the main reason they stay alive. Like the example of the Monty hall problem we discussed in class, these animals were able to make the correct choice over humans since they don’t over complicate the problem by trying to use a higher thinking to choose correctly. Based on the overall conclusion of the study, humans have the tendency to overthink and over analyze to get results. This is why in this case a simply minded pigeon can outsmart the average human.
Your blog is a prime example of why most of us do better on Andrew’s test the first time than the second time. It kind of goes along with what people call their “gut feeling”. Our intuition normally leads us on the right path, but as humans we can’t help but second guess ourselves! Interesting blog nice job!
This is a very interesting blog. Since I am now taking psychology class. I do believe that instinct sometimes can lead us to the correct decisions. However, I think in most occasions, those victories are made by chances. There are 50 percent of possibility to be wrong or right. Animals who use their instinct to make decisions still have a great chance to stay alive. Controlling instinct by rational thought is what makes us human. Using rational mind is the great difference between humans and animals. The whole world is based on rationality. Our society is impossible to base on our instincts.
The general concept of this post immediately caught my eye. In response to Adam McCullough, I still believe that human brains are more developed, and that since we don’t act off of mainly instincts as many animals do we are better able to analyze information/plan accordingly rather than making irrational mistakes from just simply reacting. Also, many times on test it’s a good idea to reread/analyze questions cause the brain may of skipped over key words in a sentence such as “not”, “more likely”, “best”, “always”. If one were to just go with their gut after misreading a sentence, then they’ll most likely choose the wrong answer, Here’s a link to a website when to second guess yourself.
I always second guess myself and I have always heard that its scientifically better to go with your gut decision than to switch your answer on like an exam or multiple choice question. However I also wanted to address the article you used for your article because I agree with the comment above, I don’t think it really relates to any specific study, but an over view of the idea. This could cause confusion because it may not be the most reliable source for a blog post on this topic. But I really like this idea and I think it could be developed further and analyzed from age perspectives as well and whether or not this idea of second guessing changes as we grow.
A huge problem I see with the link attached to this blog is that it does not refer to any specific study, it is simply an article that somebody wrote. Yes, pigeons may have performed better than humans in the Monty Hall experiment, but where is the study or experiment which shows this? An article that somebody wrote without attaching or citing that study raises some concerns on credibility. Always try to include a specific study or experiment in order to ensure some form of credibility when writing an effective blog post.
This article called my attention especially when I saw the picture. This is definitely something we can all relate to considering most of us second guess ourselves and our decisions all the time! I think this post has a good basis but the studies were not really specified therefore we don’t know if they’re credible or worth considering in our daily lives. The article presented a good basis but not thorough enough to default any reasoning as to second guessing ourselves.
The large question that came to mind while I was reading this post is, are animals more evolved when it comes to instincts compared to humans ? Like you said, the main thing that keeps animals in the wild alive is there instincts which are clearly a positive evolutionary adaptation. Yet, humans appear to rely less on instincts. So, what does this say about the evolution of our brain? Most people just assume that humans brains are more evolved than most wild animals, but maybe this is one way in which we are lagging behind.