Sarah Ward, psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri, conducted a two-pronged study investigating how people who follow their instincts behave in morally charged situations.
Acting on instinct, as an area of psychological research, has seen relatively little study.
This is partly due to its nebulous nature and the difficulty of pinning down “gut feelings” in an experimental setting.
A new study aims to add some detail to this unmarked territory.
In psychology, gut instinct – or intuition – is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without having to engage conscious reasoning.