Marcel Koeleman
This paper starts from the observation that in practice business leaders in their decision-making processes use their affective capacity—felt knowledge or gut feeling—alongside their cognitive capacity or thought knowledge. Based on interviews with business professionals across multiple working contexts, the findings demonstrate that integrating affective and cognitive knowledge adds tangible value to organizational decision-making. The study concludes that when systematically aligned, felt and thought knowledge mutually validate each other, enabling more truthful and effective decision processes.
These observations are conceptualized as Aesthetic Capacity: a human capability that consciously connects cognitive and affective information within human-human communication. Drawing on Habermas’ objectivating communication approach and Watzlawick’s relational communication theory, the paper further extends the concept to Human-AI communication. As trust in AI-mediated communication grows globally, the paper explores how aesthetic capacity can empower individuals to navigate non-rational and unverifiable digital information while resisting manipulative technological influences.
Aesthetic Experience, Gut Feeling, Aesthetic Capacity, Communication, Decision-Making, Human Capacity Building, Artificial Intelligence
Marcel Koeleman, Independent Researcher, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Koeleman, M. (2026). Decision-Making by Aesthetic Capacity; Human-Human Communication and Human-AI Communication in the Working World of Today and Tomorrow. Journal of Cognitive Computing & Extended Realities, 2(1), 01–23.