Although it was a small study, it encouraged other, larger studies that assumed that subtle physiological changes could help people make difficult decisions.
Trusting intuition - subtle physical sensations that come as a result of risky behavior or decisions (or situations when you need to decide something) – has been the main slogan of the financial market. Some successful traders in stock markets, including the billionaire George Soros, claimed that they pay attention to the physical "pain" and other senses to gain valuable insight into how they should trade.
These feelings don't come only 'from the gut', but also from heart, intestines, bladder, lungs, skin and other organs, and are not accidental.
They contain signals that 'tell' people about emotional states, including pain, anxiety and doubt, researchers claim. And some people are better at detecting these signals than the others.
London traders who were able to clearly detect their heart rate were more likely to progress in the financial markets, according to the study.
Researchers observed 18 traders who were buying and selling stocks during the day, and compared them with the data of the control group of 48 men who are not traders.
These two groups were supposed to count beats of their heart without touching the pulse, and traders were significantly better at that than 'non-traders'.
Researchers also found that the accuracy of traders in counting their heartbeats could predict their profit and losses, as well as the number of years that they were able to spend on the market.
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Although it was a small study, it encouraged other, larger studies that assumed that subtle physiological changes could help people make difficult decisions.
