Go with your gut: the science and psychology behind our sense of intuition

‘Everyone has a story like this – the road they didn’t walk down, the cafe they didn’t go into, the time their body reacted to save them a split second before something bad happened.’ Photograph: Stas Kulesh/Getty Images/500px Prime

On a rainy night in London, a young woman walks towards the entrance of a sidestreet, smiling to herself as she recalls the evening spent with the friend she just farewelled at the train station. She’s about to walk down the poorly-lit shortcut that will take her back to her accommodation, when she stops.

Something in her body tells her not to go down that street. She pauses, then turns back towards the busy, well lit but longer route home.