Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Updated 2026-08-15
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Proposed by Antonio Damasio: bodily reactions such as heart rate, sweating, and gut feelings act as markers that enter decision-making, so past outcomes are re-experienced as intuition and rapidly pre-sort options. The key qualifications are that the marker is a learned signal, not an oracle, and that it can be biased or outdated, which is why it must be checked rather than obeyed.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Signal read: notice the body's response to each option before you reason it through. - Origin check: ask which past experience the marker was learned from. - Bias guard: treat the signal as a lead to verify, not a verdict to obey.
Anchor fast decisions
Emotional experience is stored as a bodily pattern, and when a similar situation returns, the body re-enacts it through the insula and prefrontal cortex before conscious deliberation starts. That rapid revaluation prunes the option set, which is why decisions feel intuitive, and why damage to these circuits leaves reasoning intact while choice collapses.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_marker_hypothesisverified
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