It’s evening in a corporate office in a major world capital. The hustle and bustle has thinned as colleagues start to go home. An executive sits at their desk, wanting to tie up due diligence before leaving for the nightly commute.
The exec is examining a new client’s details and is uploading a scan of their passport.
It looks fine. The photo is nice and sharp. The layout is clear and all the markings are exactly where they should be.
Nothing about the passport made the exec want to check any further. And the proofs of address and other forms of ID also looked good.
But nevertheless they’re feeling uneasy.
Something the client said on their Zoom call was bothering them.
The client said the weather was sunny, but if they were in London where they alleged they were, they’d have known that it had been pouring with rain for the last two weeks.
In the meeting the exec explained it away thinking they were being ironic, or had made an attempt at humour. But the exec’s tummy feels inexplicably tight and off somehow and, despite being tired, they wonder what to do.
If this were you, would you:
- Continue onboarding your client ignoring your bodily dis-ease by rationalising away your feelings as a misunderstanding?
- Ask for a robust check on your client’s details, running them through a deepfake detector and asking another human for their opinion?
Our gut-brain connection is a powerful analytics system that often “knows” that further checks are needed before our conscious minds do. When faced with complex decisions where data is incomplete or overwhelming, your gut integrates a vast number of subconscious variables that your logical mind might overlook.
Your gut instinct is not a mystical feeling; it’s a biological and neurological event rooted in four key scientific principles:
- The gut-brain axis: your gut contains more than 100 million neurons, forming a “second brain” known as the Enteric Nervous System. This system is in constant, two-way communication with your primary brain via the vagus nerve. A gut feeling is your brain interpreting the massive flow of data—including hormones and nerve signals—coming directly from your gut.
- High-speed pattern recognition: a gut feeling is the physical result of your brain’s subconscious processing. It rapidly scans your lifetime of stored experiences and memories for patterns. When it detects a match or mismatch with a past situation, it triggers a physical, visceral sensation long before your conscious mind has had time to logically analyse the situation. It’s a biological “red flag” or “green light.”
- A primal survival circuit: this system evolved to ensure human survival by providing immediate risk assessment. The unease or comfort you feel in a situation is this ancient circuit making a snap judgment—”safe” or “threat”—based on subtle environmental cues, helping you react quickly to potential dangers.
- Microbiome and neurotransmitters: the trillions of microbes in your gut directly influence your intuition. They produce and help regulate critical neurotransmitters responsible for mood and cognition, including over 90% of your body’s serotonin. The health of your gut microbiome can therefore directly impact the clarity and accuracy of the signals sent to your brain.
Listening to your gut is listening to a powerful form of protective intelligence: a combination of real-time data from your “second brain” and high-speed analysis from your subconscious mind.
There are many accounts of deepfake attacks where victims override their initial bodily intuition, explaining it away.
Listen to your gut if:
- You feel something is too good to be true
- You feel an initial sense of disbelief or weirdness
- You feel that something just doesn’t add up
- You see contradictory or non-aligned facts
- You spot just one thing that’s off – like a date, a spelling mistake or an usual idiom
- You feel someone’s tone of voice doesn’t match their skills and experience
- You feel someone’s mode of expression doesn’t fit their purported cultural or ethnic background
- You can’t put a finger on what you feel; it just doesn’t feel right somehow.
Always Verify it first
