What Is an Intuitive Person?

An intuitive person is defined as someone who knows or perceives by intuition, which Merriam-Webster's defines as "quick or ready insight, immediate comprehension." Many people claim to have intuition or an innate ability to read a situation. Psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers explained the phenomenon with personality tests. These personality researchers created tests to identify human personality types. Typing is a way of identifying how different people process and perceive information, and how they make decisions.

Four Types

• There are four letter typing schemes based on a combination of Jung's and Myers's personality typing: extrovert or introvert; sensing or intuition; thinking or feeling; perceiving or judging.

When Does Intuition Begin?

• Intuition is formed in a person when she is a child, but cements as she matures.

"Sensing" Versus "Intuitive"

• The S/N preference is defined as the most comfortable and natural mode a person uses to perceive information. Perception is used here in the sense of attending to stimuli such as sight, sound, touch and non-sense stimuli, like a hunch, intuition or gut feeling. A "sensing" person prefers making decisions based on outside influences, and is more reality-based.

Identifying the Intuitive

• To identify an intuitive person, observe his eyes. An intuitive person's eyes may wander and look unfocused. A sensing person seems more focused and deliberate. A sensing person may pay more attention to his surroundings.

Intuitive Traits

• An intuitive person is more concerned about the future than the present or past. She focuses on the new, and hates routine. She is comfortable with fluid and fuzzy facts versus relying on solid data.