Insight is the capacity to understand, see and comprehend the inner workings, relationships or true nature of something. It is a deep understanding, usually arrived at through intuition rather than logic. The term “insight” can be used in many different contexts, from problem-solving to creativity.
Insight often happens when we are not actively looking for it; it comes as a sudden realization or “aha!” moment. This type of insight has been studied extensively in the field of psychology, particularly in the area of problem-solving. One famous experiment on insight was conducted by Karl Duncker in 1945. In this study, participants were given a candle, a box of thumbtacks and a book of matches and asked to attach the candle to the wall so that it could burn without dripping wax onto the floor. The catch was that they could only use the materials given to them; they could not leave the room to find additional supplies.
Most people tried unsuccessfully to tack the candle directly to the wall using only the thumbtacks; however, some participants had an “aha!” moment and realized that they could empty out the box and use it as a holder for the candle (thus circumventing the need for thumbtacks). This example shows how insight can be achieved by thinking outside ofthe box – literally!
While insights can occur suddenly, they are also often preceded by periods of incubation or unconscious processing. In other words, we may have been mulling over a problem for some time before suddenly seeing its solution clearly. This type of incubation is thought to happen because our brains continue working on problems even when we are not consciously aware of them; this allows us to arrive at solutions more quickly when we do eventually turn our attention back to them.
It should be noted that not all insights are positive; sometimes people have what is known as an “illumination” – i.,e., a sudden realization that something bad will happen (such as realizing one is aboutto make a huge mistake). However, such negative insights are usually less well-received than positive ones!