Could Aspies be more intuitive than regular folks?

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Alla
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30 Apr 2011, 6:08 pm

As I grow older, I find that listening to my intuition often provides better answers than simply having tons of information about something or learning about it.

I find that many people are disinclined to believe that intuition is a very powerful indicator of what is going on since intuition is usually not tested easily. For example, you can intuitively pick up that a certain person is working against you. Often, you can't prove it with mere facts, but you simply "know" that there is something about that certain person which screams negativity against you. You often intuitively know the reason why this is so as well; they may be jealous of you, have some sort of inferiority complex, see you as a threat, etc.

Do you think that aspies have stronger intuition in general than normal people? If so, is this intuition stronger for certain things compared to NTs?



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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30 Apr 2011, 6:23 pm

I have better psychic intuition than I do just knowing how people are feeling by the way they act. At times I can tell them uncanny things about themselves or what they are interested in but I can't tell other things about them, like if they can't stand me unless they are really obvious. Then my feelings are hurt and I react more strongly than the average person. People tell me I shouldn't let it bother me and not care but it does get to me, sometimes.



Alla
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30 Apr 2011, 6:39 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
I have better psychic intuition than I do just knowing how people are feeling by the way they act. At times I can tell them uncanny things about themselves or what they are interested in but I can't tell other things about them, like if they can't stand me unless they are really obvious. Then my feelings are hurt and I react more strongly than the average person. People tell me I shouldn't let it bother me and not care but it does get to me, sometimes.


I can totally identify with what you are saying. I can, for example, tell if someone has an inferiority complex (and usually can pinpoint what that complex is exactly) but I find that I often can't tell if they can't stand me (although I have gotten better now that I am older).



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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30 Apr 2011, 6:45 pm

I talk about something they have done that day or are thinking about.



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30 Apr 2011, 6:47 pm

I don't seem to be as intuitive as I thought, then.


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30 Apr 2011, 7:01 pm

Alla wrote:
Do you think that aspies have stronger intuition in general than normal people? If so, is this intuition stronger for certain things compared to NTs?

Overall, I tend to be far more observant and studious than most people I have ever known, and I think that is why my "people intuition", so to speak, has "developed" over the years. And interestingly, at least for me, that has often proved helpful in certain jobs where I have had opportunities to help make work a little easier for people working in repetitive production settings (such as in a steel-fabrication press room).


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Kait
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25 Jan 2013, 4:20 pm

Alla wrote:
As I grow older, I find that listening to my intuition often provides better answers than simply having tons of information about something or learning about it.

I find that many people are disinclined to believe that intuition is a very powerful indicator of what is going on since intuition is usually not tested easily. For example, you can intuitively pick up that a certain person is working against you. Often, you can't prove it with mere facts, but you simply "know" that there is something about that certain person which screams negativity against you. You often intuitively know the reason why this is so as well; they may be jealous of you, have some sort of inferiority complex, see you as a threat, etc.

Do you think that aspies have stronger intuition in general than normal people? If so, is this intuition stronger for certain things compared to NTs?


Aspies have better intuition than most people? That's sort of ironic, because I've always thought of my Asperger's Syndrome as being simply a lack of intuition, particularly people-related intuition. I've never experienced these "gut feelings" everyone supposedly has. I always have to think about things in a logical way. It doesn't make sense to me how neurotypicals just KNOW how to make friends. I don't understand how some of them always just KNOW whether a person likes them or not without being told anything directly. Some people say Asperger's Syndrome is a lack of empathy, but my empathy is actually very strong when I know someone's upset...I just find it difficult to intuitively know how another person is feeling. Neurotypicals usually lie, in a "polite", tactful way, but I always find those lies ("white lies", usually) confusing. I have a hard time know what certain tones of voice or gestures mean without not having learned them. When I was first diagnosed with Asperger's as a kid, one of my symptoms was being overly literal and "brutally" honest. I didn't intuitively get social cues...I'm not overly literal now of course - I actually use metaphors a lot, but that's because I've learned about them. Does this make any sense?


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25 Jan 2013, 4:44 pm

I think this question is interesting. There are different kinds of intuition, and for AS people it's important to make that distinction, as it's possible to be good at one and bad at another. ASD people tend to lack social intuition/social imagination, because it relies on registering social cues like facial expression and tone of voice.

However, it's possible that because of this deficit, we might learn to be better than average at other forms of intuition, like someone without sight might learn to have more precise hearing than sighted people. You may be good at emotional intuition (knowing what emotion other people are currently feeling without being told), problem-solving or practical intuition (having ideas for action in particular situations which a NT person may not think of) or creative intuition (intuitive creative practices and ideas). I know I'm pretty good at all of those things, despite my social intuition being terrible.



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25 Jan 2013, 4:51 pm

Kait wrote:
I've never experienced these "gut feelings" everyone supposedly has. I always have to think about things in a logical way. I have a hard time know what certain tones of voice or gestures mean without not having learned them. When I was first diagnosed with Asperger's as a kid, one of my symptoms was being overly literal and "brutally" honest. I didn't intuitively get social cues...I'm not overly literal now of course - I actually use metaphors a lot, but that's because I've learned about them. Does this make any sense?


The gut feelings thing makes me curious. I never get gut feelings. I always know how I know something. Is that an aspie thing? I don't have trouble figuring people out on a conscious level and knowing how they are feeling but I know how I know. I know dad's upset because he's using a certain tone. I know what the other person is going to do because I would do the same thing in his situation.

People sometimes think I'm intuitive because they aren't noticing the patterns or indicators that I'm processing to figure things out but the fact is that I'm not. They don't know how I know things but I still do and they often assume I don't because to them there is no way I could know the things I know.

People think I'm intuitive but I'm not. I'm probably the least intuitive person in the world. I don't get gut feelings. I'm just very perceptive and good at figuring other things out and that includes people. I don't do it in an NT way and I don't have gut feelings.


How many Aspies have never had a gut feeling? I wonder how common it is for those on the spectrum to completely devoid of intuitive things and "just knowing".



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26 Jan 2013, 12:31 am

seaturtleisland wrote:
Kait wrote:
I've never experienced these "gut feelings" everyone supposedly has. I always have to think about things in a logical way. I have a hard time know what certain tones of voice or gestures mean without not having learned them. When I was first diagnosed with Asperger's as a kid, one of my symptoms was being overly literal and "brutally" honest. I didn't intuitively get social cues...I'm not overly literal now of course - I actually use metaphors a lot, but that's because I've learned about them. Does this make any sense?


The gut feelings thing makes me curious. I never get gut feelings. I always know how I know something. Is that an aspie thing? I don't have trouble figuring people out on a conscious level and knowing how they are feeling but I know how I know. I know dad's upset because he's using a certain tone. I know what the other person is going to do because I would do the same thing in his situation.

.


Yeah, exactly. That's how I am too. I usually figure things out on a conscious level, and I can read peoples' tones, but that's because I've learned how to. Like, when my dad's upset, and I know it because of his tone, that's because he's used that tone when he was upset before, you know? I don't necessarily know what another person is going to do in a situation because of what I'd do though. I might have empathy for them, and I might have a guess, but when it comes down to it, people think differently. Two different people in a similar situation may solve things in completely different ways because their personalities are so different from one another. Usually the way I solve problems is different than how other people solve them.


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26 Jan 2013, 7:04 am

I'm not at all an intuitive person.
I can't tell if someone is angry with me, or if it's working against me, unless they tell me, because I can't read their minds.
When I thought that someone was working against me, or didn't like me, I've always ended up knowing from them that it wasn't the truth, and I had misunderstood.
Sometimes I wake up with the sensation that "something good/bad is going to happen today", but that thing usually doesn't happen, I could say that on 10 times I thought something good/bad was going to happen, I guessed right only 2-3 times on 10.



Last edited by chlov on 26 Jan 2013, 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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26 Jan 2013, 8:58 am

Kait wrote:
I don't necessarily know what another person is going to do in a situation because of what I'd do though. I might have empathy for them, and I might have a guess, but when it comes down to it, people think differently. Two different people in a similar situation may solve things in completely different ways because their personalities are so different from one another. Usually the way I solve problems is different than how other people solve them.

Yes people do think differently. If I know the person or I have any information about the person that would make me think s/he is going to do something differently then I would I try to take that into account. I was just mentioning the simplified concept of putting yourself in someone else's position.

I've heard that some Aspies have trouble with that but it's one of the things that comes more easily to me.



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26 Jan 2013, 9:05 am

Quote:
The gut feelings thing makes me curious. I never get gut feelings. I always know how I know something. Is that an aspie thing? I don't have trouble figuring people out on a conscious level and knowing how they are feeling but I know how I know. I know dad's upset because he's using a certain tone. I know what the other person is going to do because I would do the same thing in his situation.


I don't consider myself to know something unless I know how I know it. I sometimes do get gut feelings, but in my experience they're wrong more often than they're right, and they're often PTSD-related. ('I know Dad's mad at me!' No, his arthritis is acting up and I'm misinterpreting pain as anger.)



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26 Jan 2013, 12:36 pm

Alla wrote:
As I grow older, I find that listening to my intuition often provides better answers than simply having tons of information about something or learning about it.

I find that many people are disinclined to believe that intuition is a very powerful indicator of what is going on since intuition is usually not tested easily. For example, you can intuitively pick up that a certain person is working against you. Often, you can't prove it with mere facts, but you simply "know" that there is something about that certain person which screams negativity against you. You often intuitively know the reason why this is so as well; they may be jealous of you, have some sort of inferiority complex, see you as a threat, etc.

Do you think that aspies have stronger intuition in general than normal people? If so, is this intuition stronger for certain things compared to NTs?


Aspies are normal people i think it just varies with the individual person. Also you are getting older, so you take all that past learning experience with you. Maybe it's helped your intuition?

This is sometimes a confusing question for me as is intuition is different to me than just "reading people". Although they are connected.
Someone may give off bad vibes. Or i get a bad feeling about the person.
Maybe it's primal instincts that have stayed with us since humans (or their predecessors) came about.

Animal instinct of a sort.

Being on the spectrum we may have problems reading others emotions, yet to me, intuition is gut feeling. When i was young i had a very nervous gut feeling something bad was going to happen and a relative died. (The relative wasn't sick; just older; it was not expected)

Intuition seems to run in families. Three generations of us can do it, my grandmother and mother as well have accounts ranging from knowing what street they'd get into a car accident to stating aloud in a bar the time that a relative passed away, (obviously having no way of knowing these things).
There are others i know of who seem to have intuition run in families as well.
While i may not be able to read people well, i would like to think i can read if people are bad or not.

Recently (within past year) there was a person who lives near us who acted nice and appeared to be a good person. He didn't set off any alarms, yet they were there, i just failed to see the red flags. (i.e. his emotional abuse of his gf and just sadistic behavior). When i did realize that he was all an act i had a episode right then and there and nearly attacked him.
The person was a sociopath that could blend well as a normal person. My gf and i were around the area enough to see more behavior to know and find out he was bad, however regular people just meeting him would never know the difference.

So i question my ability to "read people" on intuition at times, and am mad at myself for not realizing sooner about the sociopath.



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15 Feb 2013, 5:34 pm

Expose yourself (not in the perverted way) to interaction wit enough people and you'll be able to see right through their lies. Collect enough data about human psychology and it will enhance your intuitive ability to read people. Meet a few true psychopaths and you will know how to read them too. Practice makes the master.



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15 Feb 2013, 6:26 pm

I have a good amount of general intellectual-type intuition. I'm not social enough to have "people" intuition.