The Role of Intuition and Expertise in Decision-Making

Intuition plays a vital role in decision-making, particularly in high-pressure environments like firefighting. Scholars Daniel Kahneman and Gary Klein offer contrasting views on its reliability—Kahneman warns of its biases, while Klein champions its value in expert contexts through the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model. Using a case study of a fireground commander’s life-saving decision, this article explores how intuition, shaped by years of experience, enables experts to "know without knowing." However, the balance between intuition and deliberate evaluation remains crucial, as expertise is key to ensuring intuitive judgments are effective and reliable.