These two words are used interchangeably in most contexts. For example, we can say, "My instinct is not to trust any advertisement". We can also say, "My intuition tells me not to trust any advertisement". Careful users of the language try and make a distinction between the two. They argue that an "instinct" is something that we are born with; it is something that we do naturally without thinking. An instinct is a reaction.
An animal, as soon as it is born, instinctively gets up, walks to its mother, and drinks milk. There is no thinking involved here; it is something that the animal has been programmed to do. It seems as if it is automatic. When you don't really have much time to think and react to a particular situation you are responding "instinctively". When a bowler bowls a bouncer at you, you react "instinctively" rather than "intuitively".
The word "intuition", like the word "instinct" does not carry with it a sense of "reasoning", it does, however, suggest or convey the idea that some amount of knowledge and awareness is involved. From experience a teacher intuitively knows when his students understand him and when they don't.
The word "intuition", like the word "instinct" does not carry with it a sense of "reasoning", it does, however, suggest or convey the idea that some amount of knowledge and awareness is involved. From experience a teacher intuitively knows when his students understand him and when they don't.
After hitting a fast bowler for three fours in a row, you intuitively know that the next ball, or the one after that, is likely to be a bouncer. "Intuition" is based on experience. An instinct is something you are born with, and as you grow into an adult, sometimes you lose some of those instincts. A child is not born with intuition, he gains it through experience.
Instinct is a natural or inherent aptitude, impulse or capacity. It is an inherent capacity to make a complex and specific response to an environmental stimulus without involving reason. It is a behaviour that is mediated by reactions below the conscious level. In layman’s terms: Instinct is an instantaneous reaction to a physical environment or situation without any thought put into it. Whereas Intuition is the ability to readily assess a situation and make a quick decision, without necessarily having actual evidence, based on logic.
Instinct is a characteristic of a creature that was not able to develop higher qualities of thought. Naturally, lower forms of animals possess this trait. No different from a lion who immediately pounces on a gazelle to nourish its appetite. Hungry, see food, pounce, kill, eat. – Instinct.
Intuition is the inner voice inside us that directs us to the right path when we make questionable choices. Intuition occupies our thoughts incessantly and will not cease until we carry out what it directs us to do.
Once we recognize it, we then depend on it. It shall prove to you that based on past experiences that it always points us to the right direction enabling us to make better life choices.
Authors and Credits:
Kitt Villasis
Edited for easy understanding
Edited for easy understanding