Intuition

Philosophical and psychological roots of the term

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Henri Bergson states that in his 1903 Introduction to Metaphysics he presented intuition as a philosophical method. It describes this intuition as a kind of 'sympathy', a direct entering into the thing itself, contrasted with analysis, which divides reality into concepts for practical purposes. This is one early philosophical usage and is not the same as the later psychological sense of a rapid judgment.

In psychology, intuition is commonly discussed within dual-process accounts. Evans and Stanovich (2013) describe rapid autonomous processes (Type 1) that yield default responses unless higher-order reasoning processes (Type 2) intervene, and they note that critics have attacked dual-process theories as a category. A review of general practitioners' reasoning describes the cognitive continuum theory as an early form of dual-process theory and cites work on tacit knowledge and on stages of expertise running from analytical to largely intuitive. The sources reviewed do not give a single dated origin for the dual-process idea.

Decision research and the expertise debate

Kahneman and Klein (2009) compared two research approaches that are often viewed as conflicting, heuristics and biases and naturalistic decision making, and tried to map the boundary conditions that separate skilled intuition from overconfident and biased impressions. Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier (2011) reviewed work on heuristics, mental shortcuts that ignore part of the available information, and report evidence that such shortcuts can be accurate in realistic settings, particularly where predictability is low or samples are small. Dane and Pratt (2007) defined intuitions as 'affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations' and built a model of intuition in managerial decisions.

Esoteric lineages

Within the esoteric movement founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), later called anthroposophy, intuition names a stage of cognition. A scholar of religious experience reports that Steiner described stages of development that he termed Imaginative, Inspirational and Intuitive cognition, set out in books such as How to Know Higher Worlds (1904), Theosophy (1904) and An Outline of Esoteric Science (1910). The same article reports that Steiner distanced himself from the trance mediums of the Spiritualist circles of his day. Another scholar dates Steiner's turn to the theosophical movement to 1902.

Psychological and clinical meanings

Usage varies even within research. A European expert group on gut feelings in general practice (COGITA) published a glossary of diagnostic reasoning terms because authors risk using different terms for similar concepts; the glossary covers analytical and non-analytical reasoning and intuition. In a review of general practitioners' reasoning, gut feelings are treated as a specific kind of intuitive feeling, defined as thoughts that come to mind without apparent effort, and two types are distinguished: a sense of alarm and a sense of reassurance.

An interview study of 18 family physicians sorted 24 reported intuition cases into three decision-process types, gut feelings, recognitions and insights, and noted that earlier studies had equated clinical intuition with first impressions. A mixed-studies review of nursing research concludes that intuition is more than a gut feeling and describes it as a process based on knowledge and care experience.

Spiritual and esoteric meanings

In the esoteric usage, the meaning can differ sharply from the clinical one. A scholar of Steiner's work reports that, in both his early and later writings, intuition is an unmediated cognitive perception of reality that creates unity on the level of thought or idea, rather than an emotion or gut feeling. The sources reviewed for this page do not define clairsentience or inner guidance, so this page does not define them; popular teaching materials were not used as sources. Psychic Reading and the site's pages on intuitive practices cover how those terms are used in practice.

Related terms in research on anomalous cognition

Bem (2011) defines psi as anomalous processes of information or energy transfer currently unexplained by known physical or biological mechanisms. He separates precognition, a conscious cognitive awareness of a future event, from premonition, an affective apprehension of it. Researchers of presentiment use a different framing: physiological changes recorded before a stimulus that the participant could not predict. These terms describe claimed responses to future events and are distinct from the experience-based intuition studied in decision research.

Use of the idea in professional decision-making

Dane and Pratt propose that the effectiveness of intuition depends on domain knowledge, implicit and explicit learning, and task characteristics. In clinical settings, the nursing review (16 studies, published 1985-2016) groups its findings under the characteristics of intuition in daily work, its role in relationships with patients, and its role in the nursing process, including support and guidance, clues in decision-making and validating decisions. The review authors conclude that nurses use intuition alongside objective data.

In general practice, a review proposes that a sense of alarm should prompt a clinician to slow down and switch to analytical reasoning, and it suggests that medical education could give trainees opportunities to discuss the role of gut feelings in their reasoning. These are proposals by the authors, not tested training programs.

Use of the idea in esoteric and philosophical systems

Adherents of Steiner's system describe a path of development that begins with study of spiritual-scientific works and disciplined thinking before progressing through Imaginative and Inspirational to Intuitive cognition. A scholar of Steiner's philosophy reports that, in The Philosophy of Freedom, intuition is the means by which a person arrives at the concepts that connect percepts, and that moral intuition underlies ethical conduct in its highest form. Bergson's method, as summarized above, asks for effort over several acts rather than a passing impression.

The sources reviewed do not describe how contemporary psychic readers, intuitive development classes or inner-guidance teachers use the term. That material is left to the pages on those practices.

Claims in decision-making and clinical settings

Researchers describe several claimed roles. Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier report that simple heuristics can be accurate in realistic conditions. Dane and Pratt model when intuition may contribute to managerial decisions. General practitioners in the reviewed literature describe a sense of alarm and a sense of reassurance as aids when diagnosis is uncertain, and the authors of the nursing review conclude that intuition supports decision-making and the safety of patient care. These are authors' conclusions drawn from review or interview material, not outcome trials.

Claims in esoteric traditions

In Steiner's system, as reported by a scholar of religious experience, a spiritual science could reach objective facts about the spiritual world solely through the powers of human cognition, and Intuitive cognition forms one of its higher stages. A second scholar describes Steiner's moral intuition as the source of right action in a given situation. Contemporary claims that intuition offers guidance on relationships, careers or health are widespread in popular teaching, but the sources reviewed do not document or test them.

Expertise and the conditions for reliable intuition

Kahneman and Klein concluded that the likely quality of an intuitive judgment depends on how predictable the environment is and on whether the individual has had the opportunity to learn its regularities, and that subjective experience is not a reliable indicator of judgment accuracy. Evans and Stanovich defend the dual-process distinction against critics, while agreeing that some criticisms have force against some versions of the theories.

Studies of clinicians mostly describe how intuition is experienced rather than how accurate it is. In the family physician interviews, every reported case involved a judgment that conflicted with a more rational explanation or with what colleagues would do, and the authors state that little is known about what determines the success or failure of different intuitive processes. The general practice review likewise lists the diagnostic value of gut feelings as a question for further research.

Presentiment, precognition and the replication record

Bem (2011) reported nine experiments with more than 1,000 participants, testing time-reversed versions of established psychological effects, and a mean effect size of 0.22. Wagenmakers and colleagues reanalyzed the data with a Bayesian test and reported that evidence for psi was weak to nonexistent; Bem, Utts and Johnson replied that the prior used was unrealistic and that a more reasonable prior yields strong evidence. The statistical disagreement is a matter of method and was not resolved in these papers.

Replication attempts of the retroactive recall experiments have mostly been negative. Three pre-registered attempts with 150 participants combined produced a one-tailed p of .83. A later set of seven experiments (N = 3,289) failed to replicate the finding, and a meta-analysis of replication attempts found an average effect size of 0.04.

A separate line of work on physiological anticipation before unpredictable stimuli is described differently. A meta-analysis of 26 reports (1978-2010) found a small overall effect (0.21); its authors argue the cause lies within natural physical processes rather than paranormal ones and call for replication by independent laboratories. An update that added 19 studies reports an overall effect of 0.28 and a publication-bias model that does not suggest contamination. These findings concern unconscious physiological responses, not conscious intuition, and their interpretation remains contested.

What the searches did not find

Searches of PubMed for controlled trials of intuition training and for controlled accuracy studies of psychic or medical-intuitive readings did not surface a study of spiritual intuition-development programs that this review could identify, though the records returned were not exhaustively screened. The esoteric sources cited here are interpretive scholarship on Steiner's thought, and their authors do not test whether intuitive or clairvoyant perceptions are accurate.

Reliance on intuition in high-stakes decisions

The expertise literature supports caution about how confident an intuitive impression feels. Kahneman and Klein state that subjective experience is not a reliable indicator of judgment accuracy. The review of general practitioners' reasoning notes that the medical decision-making literature warns that intuitive hunches may be false, that ideas that first spring to mind can shape later thinking, and that confirming evidence may be sought selectively.

The same review suggests that a sense of alarm should lead a clinician to slow down and use analytical reasoning, and it reports that instructions to combine analytical and non-analytical reasoning have been associated with improved diagnostic accuracy. The family physician study cautions against reading its findings as evidence that clinicians should trust intuition without checking.

Health choices and care boundaries

The sources reviewed describe clinicians' and managers' judgments, not lay people's use of intuition to choose health care. None reports harms from spiritual intuition practices, and none evaluates them. Given the replication results above, the research reviewed provides no support for treating a felt premonition as dependable information about the future. Intuitive impressions are not a substitute for professional assessment, and they should not delay or replace necessary medical, psychological or safety care.

No professional register, protected title or training standard for intuition as such was identified in the sources reviewed. Requirements for particular practices, such as psychic readings, vary and are covered on their own pages.