What Neuroscience Says About Gut Feelings And Decision Making

[rcjordan]

^{Debbie agrees. She often tells others to pay more attention to the hairs on the back of their neck.}

https://www.forbes.com/sites/liendepau/2026/09/01/what-neuroscience-says-about-gut-feelings-and-bad-calls/

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, developed in the 1990s and tested repeatedly since, states that the body encodes the outcomes of past emotional experiences into physiological signals: a tightening chest, a drop in the stomach, a flush of warmth.

These signals arrive in our consciousness ahead of any deliberate analysis our mind makes. They bias the decision before we have finished reasoning it through. That fast, pre-verbal nudge is what people call a gut feeling.

[Brad]

It's very important to pay attention to this as part of situational awareness.