What if I told you that you had a superpower?
No, your eyes do not deceive you!
Though some people naturally have more of it, it can be found in every human being.
It's called intuition!
According to Dr. Judith Orloff, scientists believe intuition operates through the entire right side of our brain, the brain’s hippocampus, and through our gut (the digestive system has neurons as well).
And here's where it gets interesting for us females, we're more intuitive than men!
Women's corpus callosum, the white matter that connects our left and right brain hemisphere together is thicker than men's.
This sturdier passage gives women faster access to each hemisphere. Which means, us girls can merge our emotions and gut feelings with logic, and fact faster than men.
In simpler words, a women's brain is designed for rapid, intuitive decision making.
Now, you may be asking, why? why do women have this super super-power?
Well, the answer lies within how society works. Men are often psychologically less in touch with their emotions because they have less cultural permission to do so. Men are expected to be all "tough".They are told to "man up". For men, having emotions makes them "girly", which is considered an insult.
The same treatment over time, caused males to develop a thinner corpus callosum, which means they often make decisions using either logic, or intuition, but rarely both.
Your next question may be, "Why is intuition a superpower at all?"
Intuition is basically your 'gut instinct'. According to Google Dictionary, "the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning."
A lot of super-smart students actually use intuition during tests, instead of pure knowledge.
That's why they never have to study! Their brain just goes, "That's the right answer."
Naturally, this might confuse you, so let's see some evidence:
According to this study, an audience was asked to pick between curtain #1, and curtain #2. This game was played online, and against a computer. Behind one of the curtains, there was a picture, and the goal of the game was to find that picture. The result of the study was that the humans were able to find the correct curtain a few seconds before the robot did.
Robots obviously don't have intuition. They are taught to make logical decisions. Therefore, in a game that does not require logic, they don't always win.
Lastly, several studies have concluded that intuition often helps make better major life decisions. Trusting your intuition on significant decisions like, which house to buy, which person to marry, etc has proven to have better outcomes.
Don't believe it? Here's the evidence :
In this study, there were several car buyers. One group was given plenty of time to think over their choices, and only 25% were satisfied with their final choices. The other group made a fast, and intuitive decision, and 60% of the buyers were satisfied.
The moral of the story isn't that you should completely ditch logic and function solely on intuition. Rather, the lesson is that you shouldn't ignore your gut feeling. Like the Jane Austen book, "Sense and Sensibility" illustrates, only sense or only sensibility will get you nowhere. It's the combination of both that does the trick!
Until next time...
Stay Curious ;)
Love,
Sarah
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