Here's How Accurate Your Gut Instincts Are When You Meet Someone New

Have you ever met someone and thought there was something “off” about the person? Maybe the person seemed fine, friendly even, but there was just something about the person that didn’t sit right with you. Whenever we feel conflicted about a person we meet, the old familiar saying pops up: listen to your gut. On the other hand, there are so much information that we think we just need to figure out first. What is he like? What do other people say about her?

When you compare looking at all the information at hand versus using your gut instincts, it seems like listening to your instincts is the simple, yet sensible answer to our questions. So where did this whole idea of the gut instinct come from, anyway?

Our instincts aren’t just some strange quality that we’re automatically born with. They’re actually a combination of our past experiences and the knowledge that we accumulate over time. Even if our gut feeling seems hard to describe, there’s actually a logical explanation for it.

Whenever you enter a new environment, you subconsciously take in all the information around you. If you talk to someone new, your brain picks up on various cues, such as the person’s smile or tone of voice, and then matches those cues with something similar in your brain’s database to come up with a conclusion. Consciously, you then simply decide whether or not you like this person.

But, how trustworthy are our gut feelings?

What the Faces of CEOs Reveal About Their Personalities

Nicholas Rule, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, set out to determine whether or not someone’s face indicates their leadership capabilities. In his first study, he showed a group of strangers the college yearbook photos of top U.S. lawyers and asked them to predict their success. The group, who did not know anyone in the photos, were able to successfully predict which lawyers go on to lead the most profitable law firms in the country.

Some time later, Rule conducted a similar study, but used 20 female CEOs instead. The group of people involved in the studies were able to correctly judge their leadership capabilities, which directly correlated with the profits of the company that each CEO was in charge of.

Why this occurs, though, is a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Maybe we treat people differently depending on their appearance, so they develop personality traits that fit their appearance. Or, maybe the person’s face changes based on the expressions and mannerisms they repeat over time, such as laugh lines and wrinkles.

Either way, there’s something to be said about judging someone by their appearance.

When Nice People Turn Out Wrong

Sometimes we think we know someone inside and out. Until they prove us wrong, that is.

John Wayne Gacy lived in a quiet Chicago neighborhood in the 1970s with his wife and two stepdaughters. People in the community respected him and admired him for his contributions to the community and his kind character.

When he wasn’t working on his construction business, Gacy would host street parties for neighbors. He was an active volunteer for various organizations and dressed up as “Pogo the clown” to entertain children. Everyone loved Gacy.

What they didn’t know was his history. Less than a decade before, he had lived in another suburb with his then-wife Marlynn Myers, where he worked with his wife’s father on the family restaurant business. Gacy worked hard on the business, was involved in volunteering, and he and his wife had two children together.

But things took a toll when there were rumors that Gacy was harassing the young men under his employment. His family and friends merely scoffed at the rumors. Eventually, he was charged with numerous counts of violence towards teenaged boys. After serving 18 months in prison, Gacy was let out.

In his new neighborhood, Gacy soon went back to his old ways. He employed a number of young men because he reasoned that they could be hired for low wages. Over a period of six years, a number of men in their teens and twenties in Gacy’s area started disappearing.

Once again, the rumors about him grew. Finally, a mother reported her son missing after meeting with Gacy, which led police to discover his past using a background check. Gacy was linked to the sexual assaults and murders of over 30 teenaged boys and young men.

Friends and neighbors, who thought they knew him so well, were left in disbelief as Gacy was sentenced to death row.

Sometimes Misjudgment Leads to a Fatal Error

A police officer is required to make snap decisions based on what he/she knows. It’s crucial to have good judgment, as their actions can mean the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, sometimes acting on a gut instinct can lead to a fatal error.

Amadou Diallo, a young Guinean man, was heading back to his apartment at night when police pulled by in a car and demanded he stop where he was. The police were patrolling for a suspect, and Diallo’s appearance seemed to match that of the person they were looking for. As Diallo stood in front of his apartment, he reached into his jacket to get his wallet, which contained his identification.

One officer noticed Diallo holding a square in his hand, which he mistook for a gun. They fired 41 times until Diallo lay on the ground dead. In the aftermath, there was public outrage as people brought up issues of racial profiling and police brutality.

A number of research experiments were conducted to review how people make decisions based on race. Both undergraduate volunteers and police officers participated in a simulation, where they had to choose whether or not to shoot a target, who was black or white, on whether they were armed or not. Results showed that participants were slower and less accurate in their decisions making for unarmed black targets.

The case of Amadou Diallo shows how our gut feelings can be a result of past prejudices. If we simply rely on biased instinctive feelings to make decisions, we could end up doing something we regret.

In most situations though, it pays to be wary. No matter who you are, it can be unnerving to walk home alone by yourself at nighttime. If you feel uncomfortable being nearby someone, you’re better off just playing it say and getting further away from that person.

An even better idea is to use a buddy system, which many colleges have set up so that people can have others accompany them home at night. Sometimes the best way to use your gut instinct is to eliminate the need for one.

Use Your Instincts Wisely

We were born with instincts to help us determine whether or not we can trust someone. Our gut feelings are result from a lifetime of experiences, things we’ve learned, and decisions we’ve made in the past.

Unfortunately, our judgment can be clouded by prejudices and emotional experiences. We might mistakenly make judgments about a stranger by comparing them with someone that we used to know. Or, we automatically make assumptions about someone without stopping to question our thoughts.

Each one of us has our own biases, which affect our gut feelings. Whenever we start to rely on our instincts, it’s important to stop ourselves and question why we feel a certain way. Did we have one negative experience that causes us to paint all situations alike? Are there certain thoughts and emotions we carry that lead to an unfair assessment of someone?

When we evaluate our gut feelings and balance them with rational thought, it ensures that we approach decision-making in the right way.

Final Note: In this post, I spoke mostly on using gut instincts to assess other people’s personalities and motives. In this second post, I talk about how gut instincts help us make important life decisions.

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