Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the Advantageous Strategy

Key finding

Healthy participants began choosing advantageously and showed anticipatory skin-conductance responses to risky options before they could explain which strategy was best. Patients with prefrontal damage never developed these signals and kept choosing badly even after knowing the right strategy.

Why it matters

Evidence that emotion-based, nonconscious signals guide good decisions before explicit knowledge does, supporting training that builds gut-level recognition rather than only facts.

Informs

• Acts on the sense that something is off context

Cite

Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1997). Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the Advantageous Strategy. Science, 275(5304), 1293-1295. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5304.1293