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Intuitive Decision-Making Based on Expertise May Deliver Better Results Than ...

01.01.70

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (December 2012) – Intuition may be just as effective in decision-making as an analytical approach  — and sometimes more efficient and effective, depending on the decision-maker's level of expertise on the subject at had, according to a new report in the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes by researchers from Boston College, George Mason University and Rice University.

“It turns out intuition isn’t always bad and there are conditions where it is a good way to make the right decision,” said co-author Michael Pratt , the O’Connor Family Professor of Management and Organization at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management . “What we found demystifies a lot of the information out there that says intuition isn’t as effective as if you sat down and walked through an analytical approach.”

Testing intuition against analysis, Pratt and co-authors Erik Dane , of Rice University and Kevin W. Rockmann , of George Mason, found that people can trust their gut and rely on intuition when making a broad evaluation – one that doesn’t include a subset of additional decisions – in an area where they have in-depth knowledge of the subject, also referred to as domain expertise.

Source: Boston College Chronicle