Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55  ·  rating details  ·  570 ratings  ·  87 reviews
An engaging explanation of the science behind Malcolm Gladwell�s bestselling Blink

Gerd Gigerenzer is one of the researchers of behavioral intuition responsible for the science behind Malcolm Gladwell�s bestseller Blink. Gladwell showed us how snap decisions often yield better results than careful analysis. Now, Gigerenzer explains why our intuition is such a powerful dec...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published July 5th 2007 by Viking Adult (first published June 28th 2007)
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Andrea
After hearing this book described as the "science behind Malcolm Gladwell's Blink," I thought that it might be inaccessible and filled with jargon. Instead, I found that Gigerenzer directs his entertaining and controversial book to the average reader.

His scientific study of intuition in decision-making is fascinating. Throughout the book he defends simple, unconscious thought processes (what we would call intuition), which are usually ignored in favor of complex formulas. For example, many scie...more
Bob
Basically, the theme of the book is that thinking in patterns of relations in domains of partial knowledge can be more effective than thinking sequentially through logical associations of all that is known. Toward the end of the book this message started feeling repetitive, so I felt that I was learning less as I read more. Condensed, it would make a great piece in Readers Digest.
Jeff Kelleher
We seldom have full information, and we seldom have enough time to deliberate. Pure reason, in other words, is impractical in a bustling world. But we must decide, every hour, matters that affect us. So we exercise our gut feelings.

What is intuition, and where do we get it? Its very nature makes it elusive. Gigerenzer's contribution is to try to answer these hard questions.

The archetype is the fielder chasing a fly ball. A logical solution would require an intricate calculation of speed, distanc...more
Tucker
Chapters of particular interest:

- Chapter 7 on the recognition heuristic. Merely by recognizing the name of a foreign city or a consumer brand, we have some information about it: the city must have a lot of inhabitants; the brand must be fairly reliable. (I wonder how this might be applied to the recognition of moral "rules of thumb" discussed in subsequent chapters.)

- Chapter 10 on moral intuitions. He says we have an unconscious "moral grammar," but our rules can conflict with each other and...more
Vanessa
I started to read Gut Feeling when I was half way through Thinking, Fast and Slow. These two books were developed around the same theme: human intuition. While Thinking, Fast and Slow exposes the dark side of intuition, Gut Feeling reveals the bright side: how intuition can facilitate our decision making.

The notion of “rules of thumb” is the leitmotif of the book. It goes like this: we make decisions following unexplainable rules that engraved in our consciousness. These rules are usually extrem...more
Alaeddin Hallak
It was great in the first few chapters. I learned some very interesting ideas (which I will summarize at the end of this review), but then it got too scientific and philosophical and I totally lost interest and goodwill once the author started attributing everything to so-called "evolution" and even started suggesting improvements to "shortcomings" in the creation of the human eye at some point.

Nevertheless, the following are my main takeaways from the book:

Recognition Heuristic: relying on wha...more
getAbstract
Annotated study on the value of instinctive responses over rational ones

According to Freud and other intellectuals and philosophers, intuition is unsound and has no merit. Freud warns not to put any value on gut feelings. Instead, people should trust logic and reasoning. German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer begs to differ. He claims that intuition often works far better than reason to solve problems and make decisions. Gigerenzer details numerous studies that repeatedly demonstrate intuition’s a...more
Dinah
So, if you want to save yourself the time and expense of taking a Cognitive Science 101 course, this book is a pretty good solution. Gigerenzer offers up some theories on how human decision-making actually works (hint: it's not by drawing up a big list of pro's and con's and doing a weighted analysis), why we evolved to make decisions this way (VOMIT. instant -1 star.), and presents evidence that these innate methods of decison-making are often "better" than advanced statistical models.

The first...more
Allysha Moulton
This book definitely opened up my mind to how my mind actually works. This book was kind of like "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell, but instead of how you think, it's about how the brain works. I loved this book. It is so interesting and it makes you want to read more and more. I learned some things I had never heard of before, and it cleared up a few things I had questions on, but was never motivated enough to go check out or research. Knowing the trick to playing tic-tac-toe is never fun...more
Tricia
Interesting investigation into intuition and gut feelings by one of Malcolm Gladwell's resources for Blink. If you were interested in understanding more about how gut feelings or intuition really works, this is an easy-to-read, interesting primer. Overall my takeaway was that we should learn to listen more to our initial gut feelings when faced with major decisions. The unconscious knows a lot more than we might give it credit for and paying heed to that upset stomach might be wise. Is it just i...more
Nick
This is the pop-science book behind pop-science books like "Blink". Its good, although the basic thesis is pretty simple and doesn't get elaborated on very much as the book progresses. The idea is that given limited information, its wiser to rely on heuristics and intuition than to try and rationally construct a solution. This isn't to say intuition is better than reason, only that its a different tool which is useful in a different set of circumstances. Some of this stuff was obvious, even to m...more
Rafael Parreira
O autor explica muito bem como o pensamento simples e intuitivo pode ser usado para resolver os mais diversos problemas e situações, inclusive prever quais serão as melhores alternativas. A intuição é tão precisa quanto opiniões de especialistas em economia, medicina e direito. Os argumentos são fundados em estudos científicos que muitas vezes provam o senso comum. Acho que a maior crítica que fazem ao pensamento intuitivo, e que Gigerenzer rebate sempre no livro, é que uma análise profunda e ra...more
Христо Блажев
Герд Гигенцер вярва, че трябва да слушаме “Гласът на интуицията”
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/03/b...

Тази книга определено влиза в разрез с много традиционни практики. Нейният автор твърди, че нашите мозъци имат мощни аналитични умения (в което едва ли някой се съмнява), които обаче ние затрупваме с информация и практически деактивираме.
gramakri
This book warns you from getting stuck in analysis paralysis mode and strongly advocates the necessity and urgency to take decisions based on your intuitive gut feelings given the limited information and time you have at your disposal.
Such decisions, the author argues , are generally as good as if not better than the decisions taken with tonnes of data and information.
A very interesting read, though at certain places it tends to be somewhat repetitive.
For key takeaways from this book visit
http:/...more
Steven Peterson
This is an intriguing work on human decision making. The argument is that evolution has given us an adaptive toolkit of decision making tools. Based on experience over eons, shortcuts for making decisions came about. And, accroding to the author, studies suggest that these can be more effective than statistical analysis. For instan ce, "Take the Best." In maing decisions, you simply accept the first choice that looks like it will work. That's it!

Well written and relatively short. Quite useful in...more
Marynna
With reservations, recommended.

Overall, Gut Feelings is a fascinating discussion of human social behavior by a well respected expert. Although Gigerenzer's unifying theme / central idea remains unproven, nevertheless his insights about social behavior, including interesting anecdotes and descriptions of research findings, is worthwhile and useful. It's amusing and ironic to notice that his all-or-nothing heuristic conclusion apparently does not follow the presented evidence and arguments.

Gigeren...more
Jen
This book was not exactly what I expected, but good nonetheless. It really was more of a scientific look vs. a spiritual (which I had been expecting.)

The author maps out individual examples and research to show us how we utilize our unconscious in everyday decisions. He does this in a pretty simple way and interesting way.

What stood out to me, was how the author demonstrated that those who have average knowledge of a given subject often can accurately deduce things about that subject as well as...more
Yosafbridg
In order to make sense of Gerd Gigerenzer's Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious you kind of have to stop making sense (to borrow from the Talking Heads) or at least let go of the idea that everything has to make sense. It is a very interesting book, and if you just let yourself go with it, highly readable.

Gigerenzer's basic principle is that many of our decisions are based on unconscious and instinctual heuristic processes and that these processes are often more efficient than stat...more
Amblingbooks.com
Gerd Gigerenzer is one of the researchers of behavioral intuition responsible for the science behind Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink. Gladwell showed us how snap decisions often yield better results than careful analysis. Now, Gigerenzer explains why our intuition is such a powerful decision-making tool.

Listen to Gut Feelings on your smartphone, notebook or desktop computer.
Andrew Skretvedt
Gigerenzer is worthy of your attention. This book is lighter than another of his I recently read, "Calculated Risks," which I recommend more strenuously.

The essential takeaway which I was left with, in simple terms, when faced with a decision, your gut instincts are likely to be at least as good, and probably better than a complex and carefully weighed analysis.
The book discusses at length why this might be so, and the heuristics or mental rules-of-thumb involved.

I'd recommend the section discu...more
Leslie
This was an enjoyable read about what is being discovered about the logic of the unconscious. Simple heuristics allow us to navigate complex statistical problems better than chance - and even better than experts - in many situations. However, there are situations in which they do not work as well. Knowing the difference and adjusting appropriately is key. Similarly, structuring the environment to take advantage of those background processes can really simplify life and reduce error.
Ninakix
I just didn't find myself very compelled by this book. Unfortunately, the material covered in this book is covered by a lot of books these days, and the way this book does so is not very compelling. The writing itself was bland, and the book didn't necessarily delve into these things in a way that made you understand it better than many of the much better books covering the material.
Roberta Romero
This pretty much sums the book up:

"...Gut feelings are in fact neither impeccable nor stupid. As I have argued, they take advantage of the evolved capacities of the brain and are based on rules of thumb that enable us to act fast and with astounding accuracy. The quality of intuition lies in the intelligence of the unconscious: the ability to know without thinking which role to rely on in which situation...there is no way around intuition; we could achieve little without it." (p228-229)
Anne
Sort of a primer, a lot of interesting examples and very well documented, but a bit too simplistic. It becomes repetitive after the first few chapters. The basic idea is that hunches work. Sometimes. Which is nothing new, really. Some explanations about heuristics, decision-making, nothing out of the ordinary. Mildly interesting, but after a few chapters, I was struggling to finish it.
Sylvia
Highly readable for such a scientific book. We live in a world where logics and rationality are treated as gods but this book proves that intution could work so much better, solving riddles, problems and anything with less efforts. Faster and more efficient.

I especially like the way Gigerenzer describes that people don't think and feel like rational computers by giving example of the half empty half full glass. Logically, the two are equals. But human beings don't work that way. Facing two glass...more
Dawn
This was an easy enough read and I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read the Decisive Moment first. I found the other book more practical - giving me lots of ideas on how to change the way I acted. This book is just a discussion around the evidence for gut feeling being our primary driver. To be honest I only got half way through the book
Graig
I admit I am totally clueless on the subject. I would like to find out if I really should be following fuzzy feelings out of the gate, or if they should be filtered in some way. I've done both and nothing gets me anywhere. So far, it's educational, well-researched, and fun to read. I still wonder if it works...
Bill
The intuition can be a better guide than our explicit reasoning, and that we really should try to heed it.

Also that a "fast and frugal" decision tree may be a much better practical tool than a comprehensive decision tree - and maybe that is what all that AI work on heuristics was groping towards?
Scott
This book has quite a few interesting anecdotes and studies that demonstrate how our subconscious mind is where most of our decisions are made, and actually does a good job most of the time with a few rules of thumb and some ignorance. Gigerenzer argues weighing the pros and cons carefully and methodically is time consuming and almost impossible in most day to day situations so most of the time humans should just go with their gut feeling. In most cases that will make people happiest. However, I...more
Dave
This short book on our ability to make decisions based on our unconscious was an interesting read. The book contains a decent amount of science, but since the author explains the concepts with examples it was comprehensible to the lay reader, (like me, i didn't major in science in college).
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Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (Paperback)
Bauchentscheidungen (Paperback)
Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (ebook)
Gut Feelings: The Intelligence Of The Unconscious
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Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You Reckoning With Risk: Learning To Live With Uncertainty Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition Series) Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox

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