Understanding Intuition: An Experiment

You've got a built-in alarm system, but do you know when to heed its warnings?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which something just feels… off?

In many cases, especially when we can’t identify specifically why, we (humans) tend to ignore these feelings of discomfort. That apprehension, however, is often a warning sign, a harbinger of potential danger. It’s your brain insisting that you be alert and vigilant about something in close proximity.

So how do we decide when to acknowledge the feeling and behave accordingly?

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Humor me for a minute and imagine yourself in the driver’s seat of your very-Colorado Subaru Outback, driving behind this truck:

Photo cred: Canva

Truly, picture yourself on the road, and this is what you’re seeing through your somehow-not-covered-in-smashed-bugs windshield.

What is your first thought?

If you’re a Millennial, like me, you probably immediately think of the blockbuster hit¹ Final Destination 2. For those who haven’t seen the film (an absolute masterpiece² ), you likely still had a similar response to this exercise that the rest of us are experiencing. Your instinct is probably telling you something along the lines of: I should probably not be driving behind these logs. 

***If you haven’t seen Final Destination 2, you can view the scene here (starting at 1:14). Trigger warning: the gore is gratuitous.

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A Teaching Interlude

In the context of the above scenario, the instinct to change lanes is simply a fear response. It’s that built-in alarm system, an incredibly valuable survival mechanism that allows us to perceive and respond to threats of danger in order to more safely navigate this world. 

Here’s a very brief explanation of how this mechanism functions:

Deep in the temporal lobe of your brain sits an almond-shaped structure called the amygdala, whose purpose is to communicate with the rest of your brain and body to react appropriately to stimuli. In the case of sensing imminent danger, a fear response is prompted in the amygdala, which triggers the release of stress hormones and fires up the mechanisms required for a fight or flight reaction. These changes in your body prepare you to respond to danger effectively and efficiently. 

It felt like we needed a photo here. This one captures both fight and flight! How fun! Photo by Chris Sabor on Unsplash

While all of this is happening, there are also two other areas of your brain that actively try to prepare you to respond effectively: the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. These structures process information in context, so if the perceived threat isn’t real, these pieces of your brain essentially communicate to your amygdala that you’re safe, thus dampening the response accordingly. 

You might have noticed that your reaction to the photo above is not quite as visceral as your reaction to actually driving behind one of these logger trucks. That’s because your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex have communicated to your amygdala:

“Hey, that’s just a photo, there’s no imminent threat here.”

However, when you’re out driving those windy mountain roads behind one of these trucks, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are screaming:

“There’s a real possibility those logs aren't secure; one could dislodge from that truck at any moment, only to find your car in its pathway as it escapes the confines of that truck bed.”³ 

I use this logger truck example because it easily and quickly highlights how the functioning of our brains allows us to respond appropriately to dangerous situations (actually driving behind the logging truck) and minimizes our fight or flight responses when the danger isn’t real (viewing an image of said truck).

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Observations and Hypothesis

Now that we all have an admittedly cursory but similar understanding of how our brains work in these scenarios, let’s revisit the initial question: How do we decide when to acknowledge the [fear response] and behave accordingly?

In general, humans seem fairly adept at spotting potential danger and reacting accordingly when the source enables us to viscerally imagine potential consequences of not reacting. The logger truck is a prime example, but also consider:

• How do passengers of an airplane typically react to turbulence? They buckle their seatbelt if unbuckled, and many tug on the tail to ensure it’s tightened. If the belt isn’t secure and tightened, the passenger might be risking bodily injury.

• How do swimmers wading in the ocean react to seeing a gray fin in the water near them? They usually tense up and start moving away from the fin. If they stay put, they risk a potential encounter with a curious (or hungry) shark—it might not be worth the risk to stick around long enough to see if it’s actually a dolphin.

Essentially, if you’re aware of how something functions, then you become acutely aware of potential malfunctions (and it’s the potential of malfunctioning that causes the stress that encourages our response to remove ourselves from these situations).

Hypothesis: If the danger appears clear and imminent, and there is an action we can take to readily ensure our safety, then we are more likely to pay attention to our fear response and act accordingly.

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Call to Action: Request for Feedback

I can’t test this hypothesis entirely on my own (I’m the kind of person who will change lanes to avoid being behind logger trucks—I’ve seen Final Destination 2!), so I’m requesting some feedback from all of you readers:

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t think about those logs flying into your windshield, I want to hear from you! If you do think about it, but choose to stay behind the truck, I want to hear from you, too. In fact, I want to hear from all of you (please comment or email)!

Specifically, please consider sharing how you navigate the aforementioned situation, and also the following questions:

• What are other scenarios in which you are most inclined to acknowledge the fear response and react accordingly?

• And on the converse, what are some scenarios in which you might recognize that fear response, but choose not to act accordingly?

• Can you identify your reasons for choosing to act (or not)?

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You’re probably asking yourself: Are you really asking me to do homework?

Yes, I am — please indulge me by sharing your experiences on this topic! Remember how I said that the hope with Subject to Change is for you to learn with me rather than from me?⁴ Well, this is that in action! I don’t have all the answers here, but I’m interested in learning more about how you make decisions about listening to your intuition.

Spoiler alert: There’s a piece we didn’t cover here this week, and it’s a pretty critical piece to understanding our intuition: How do we decide when to ignore the fear response and suppress our urge to act on it? We’ll be tackling this question in the next edition of Subject to Change, so I hope you’ll join me in some self-reflection and exploration.

I’m really glad you’re here,

J

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PS: This is my first newsletter that’s not related to college counseling⁵. I’m still finding my footing and I appreciate your patience as I figure this out. There’s a very real chance this will be more of a bi-monthly newsletter than a weekly newsletter (but I’ll supplement with other Narrative Musings whenever possible). We’ll get into the swing of things this summer! I genuinely want this to be fun and helpful for you, so — per the nature of this beast and in the spirit of improvement — please consider engaging by:

• Leaving comments.

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• Emailing me feedback (likes, dislikes, suggestions for future posts, any spelling or grammar errors you catch, etc.—truly, all feedback is welcome). Some things I’d love to hear about:

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1. Questionable description of said film, and franchise.

2. I said what I said, and I stand by it. It’s not a good movie, per se, but if you’re in the mood for some mindless entertainment, I highly recommend indulging. Spoiler alert: a sixth one is slated for a 2025 release! And no, they don’t get better. The series peaks at number 2.

3. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are verbose in this personification.

4. You can read more here.

5. If you’re navigating the college application process with your student, or you are a student navigating the process, you can subscribe to that one here.