(The science of instinct, emotion and decision-making — explained without a lab coat)
We often think of good decisions as being logical, cool-headed, and thoroughly thought through. Emotions, we imagine, are the noisy intruders in that process—something to be “set aside” before we make a proper, grown-up choice.
But neuroscience tells us the opposite is true. Emotion isn’t the enemy of reason. It’s the engine.
Picture this: you’re driving along a country road, listening to the radio, completely relaxed—until suddenly, a child steps into the road. You don’t think through a checklist. Your heart pounds, time slows down, and your body reacts before your mind catches up. That’s emotion stepping in. And it might just save a life.
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio spent years studying this link. He discovered that a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) is crucial for decision-making. People with damage to that area—whose emotions are blunted or missing—can remember facts, hold conversations, even reason logically. But they struggle, often severely, with making everyday decisions.
The problem? They don’t feel anything when weighing up options. And without emotional signals to help guide them, they end up making poor or even dangerous choices. They simply can’t tell what “feels right.”
This idea became known as the somatic marker hypothesis. (‘Soma’ means body.) It suggests that our emotions—those changes in heart rate, skin response, or that subtle clutch in your stomach—are markers that help steer our decisions. Not randomly, but based on learned experience.
In one experiment, Damasio’s team asked people to play a card game where some decks were “safe” and others were loaded to lose. Players didn’t know the rules, but those with healthy brains quickly began to favour the safer decks. And here’s the interesting bit: their bodies knew before they did. Long before the players could explain why, their skin started to react when reaching for the risky stacks. Their “gut” led the way.
People with damage to the VMPFC didn’t show those physical responses—and kept playing badly. They couldn’t learn from their experiences because their bodies weren’t flagging risk in the first place.
So next time something doesn’t feel quite right—a dodgy business deal, a stranger who seems “off,” or even a parenting choice that nags at you—listen to your body. It might be your nervous system whispering, “We’ve been here before. Let’s not go there again.”
And it’s not just about reacting in the moment. Damasio’s research also shows that even imagining a situation we’ve been in before can activate these internal warning systems. That tug of unease isn’t just anxiety — it’s the brain calling up a stored emotional blueprint to help you out.
Which is why people with damaged emotional centres often can’t decide anything. No gut feeling. No steer. Just a long, exhausting swirl of options and no compass.
To leave you with Damasio’s own words — which feel surprisingly poetic for a neuroscientist in a lab:
“Emotional machinery has been constructed over evolutionary time to cope with the management of life.”
So go ahead. Trust your gut. It might just be the wisest thing in the room.