7 in 10 People Use Their Gut to Make Major Life Decisions

Who needs spreadsheets or a five-year plan when you’ve just got a really good feeling about it?

According to a new poll by the life insurance hawkers at LifeHappens.org, 7 in 10 Americans admit they sometimes rely on gut instincts when making big life decisions. Not research, not logic – just straight-up vibes and intuition.

Basically, we’re all out here choosing jobs, partners, and zip codes the same way we pick what to watch on Netflix: “Eh, this feels right.”

What counts as “gut instinct”?

They went pretty broad with it. A gut feeling could mean your “intuition,” the “general vibes” you’re feeling, or what you decided after prayer or reflection. So, basically anything that’s not “I fully thought this through, ran the stats, weighed the pros and cons, and here’s my decision.”

10 things we’ve decided with our gut

They asked people about some common life decisions that shouldn’t be made on a whim, just to see how often our gut influences our decision making. And spoiler alert: it happens a lot.

Here’s a breakdown of just how many of us admit to letting our instincts take the wheel when it comes to major life choices:

• 32% have chosen a job based on gut instincts.
• 26% have decided where to move the same way.
• 26% have used their gut to end a relationship.
• 24% relied on vibes to quit a job or change careers.
• 21% have chosen a pet based on instinct.
• 20% have made investment decisions this way.
• 20% followed their gut to say yes to marriage.
• 19% trusted it while accepting a first date.
• 18% have gone with a feeling when buying a home.
• 13% decided to go back to school based on instinct.

Basically, if it’s a major decision that could affect your career, finances, or love life, there’s a good chance you or someone you know made that call with more gut than analytics.

So yeah, we like to think we’re rational beings who look at things logically and weigh the pros and cons. But if you’re mostly just vibing your way through life, you’re far from alone.

We’ll willingly go into debt for a gut feeling

Nearly half of people said they’re also willing to follow their gut when purchasing something they know they can’t afford. If our gut says yes, so does our wallet… and we’ll just figure it out later. YOLO!

Is trusting your gut really a bad thing though?

Many would argue trusting your intuition in many (if not all) of those situations is actually the smart route to take, and maybe even a necessary one. Is it really just impulse? Or is it your brain tapping into experience faster than logic can catch up?

You could argue the “feeling” you get is just a shortcut built from patterns, past outcomes, and emotional intelligence. Or to put it another way, maybe your subconscious knows better than your conscious mind does sometimes. So while spreadsheets are great, it’s possible your gut knows what your head just hasn’t figured out yet.

It’s like a built-in tiebreaker

We’ve all been there before. You have weighed the pros and cons. You’ve run the stats, thought it through the best you can, and still can’t decide. When that’s the case, what choice do you have?

Nothing breaks a tie quite like, “My gut is telling me to ______.”