Is an instinct a hunch?

My blog on instinct was loved by many, but still criticized by a few. One person equated my view of Instinct with a hunch. He raised a good point and it made me go back and do some homework.

First, let’s get the dictionary meanings out of the way. A hunch is an intuitive feeling or a premonition: he had a hunch that he would lose. Instinct is an inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli: the spawning instinct in salmon; altruistic instincts in social animals. He had an instinct for tact and diplomacy.

The problem with the English language is there are many ways to say the same thing, but say it with many different meanings. I am in court, often acting as an expert witness, and it never fails to amaze me how two intelligent people can read the same sentence in a contract and each person advocate a different interpretation. However, in this instance, the dictionary does provide some reasonably good clues to distinguish between a hunch and an instinct.

The operative dictionary terms for distinguishing a hunch from an instinct is – A hunch is associated with a “feeling” and instinct is associated with an innate pattern of “behavior.” For example, Salmon go upstream to spawn on instinct. They do not select their spawning grounds on a hunch. Some people seem to instinctively know what to say at the right time. They have an instinct for tactfulness. You probably know a few of these people and perhaps even envy their instinctive ability. They do not act on a hunch.

A hunch is often a two step process. First, you have a hunch and then second you act on the hunch. Instinct is more or less a single step process. You act on it with out the acknowledgement that you are acting on instinct. Joe Montana threw so many passes that in the later stages of his career, he was said to have passed on instinct. In contrast, a person says I have a hunch that 42-35-36 will win the lottery.

On the contrary, instinct will not help you select numbers to win the lottery. However, if you have followed 10o hunches and purchased 100 losing lottery tickets, your instincts will tell you to stop buying tickets.