Are gut instincts always correct or can they be far off the mark?

[amayzin]

Curious on this one. If you’ve ever had a strong gut instinct on something, has it been right or wrong? I sometimes struggle to differentiate between ‘gut instinct’ and plain old anxiety fearing something will happen that in reality would be unlikely to.

My gut instinct either doesn't exist or is way off, I get zero vibes about people.

I think it's one of those confirmation bias things that people can get very worked up trying to prove one way or another.

So if you believe in gut instinct, then you feel you should avoid someone, you ignore it... and find that are lovely, then obviously you didn't really feel that way and forget about it. Also it's unlikely that you have a sudden realisation that they're lovely, so much easier to forget that you felt that way. Whereas if you find they're an issue, you remember it much more because it confirms what you "know" - gut instinct is right.

if you don't believe in it, then you ignore the feeling and don't think anything of if they turn out nice or nasty because you never validated the feeling in the first place.

A lot of times when people talk about gut instinct it's not really that at all, we all have certain things which predispose us to dislike or distrust someone, or make us wary. Real gut instinct is usually linked to danger, the stranger who makes us uncomfortable, the walk down a dark road, the odd noise in the night

Really interesting, thanks everyone. I’d never thought that people are less likely to remember those instances where their gut ‘instinct’ didn’t come to fruition. Suppose confirmation bias in a way.