Affective Antecedents of Intuitive Decision Making

Abstract

Although the use of intuition in managerial decisions has been documented, many questions about the intuitive process and its antecedent stages remain unanswered, in particular the role of affective traits and states.

The study reported in this article investigates whether decision makers who are more attuned to own emotions and experience a particular mood have an easier access to intuition.

Our findings indicate that emotional awareness has indeed a positive effect on the use of intuition, which appears to be stronger for women. Surprisingly, positive and negative mood seem to influence intuition according to their intensity rather than positive/negative distinction.