Intuition and Decision Making: Some Empirical Evidence

Research on the role that intuition plays in decision making is sadly lacking. This may be a serious oversight, especially given the frequent references to intuition made by some of our most successful business leaders. This study separated subjects into groups with high and low intuition depending on the ability to identify cards before actually seeing the cards. Subjects then made a series of simulated managerial decisions. The subjects in the highly intuitive group made significantly better decisions in the simulated decision task than other subjects. These results suggest that some individuals may have unique intuitive abilities which may assist in decision making.