Heart Powers No. 23 of 28
They call it: Jumps to conclusions We call it
Sixth Sense
Also known as intuition.
The short version Your gut works fast. You often know how a thing will go before you can explain why.
Collected. 0 of 28.
Sounds like you?
- You walk into a plan and know in one minute that something is off.
- You pick the plan the group ends up loving, without a spreadsheet.
- You know a project will go sideways before there’s any proof.
Why it’s a power
Some answers turn up before the reasoning does. You walk into a new room or hear a plan and something in you says yes or no, instantly. That’s intuition, and many adults with ADHD say theirs is loud.
In a 400-adult study, adults with ADHD were more likely to call themselves intuitive.Source 1 In a Dutch survey of 206 adults, 12 named intuition without being asked.Source 2 Fourteen entrepreneurs with ADHD described launching real ventures on a gut call, with mixed results.Source 3
The research only asks whether people trust their gut. It has not tested whether the gut is right. So treat a hunch as a first draft and check it. This page is about hunches about plans and situations, not about knowing what other people feel.
Early evidence
Adults with ADHD rated themselves more intuitive in one 400-person study and 12 of 206 named it in a survey, but nobody has tested accuracy.
Where it shines
- Choosing which idea to chase
- Sensing a bad idea early
- Trusting your gut in a new school
The flip side
Nobody has shown that gut feelings are more often right, in ADHD or anyone else. A hunch can be wrong and still arrive with a lot of confidence.
Power-up: try this today
Write down your next three hunches and check later whether each one was right.
Say it to a kid
Your tummy gets a feeling about things before your brain can say why. That feeling is a helper. Check it with a look around.
Where this comes from
- Hargitai, L. D., Laan, E. L. M., Schippers, L. M., Livingston, L. A., Fairchild, G., Shah, P., & Hoogman, M. (2025). The role of psychological strengths in positive life outcomes in adults with ADHD. Psychological Medicine, 55, e278. Read it
- Schippers, L. M., Horstman, L. I., van de Velde, H., Rodrigues Pereira, R., Zinkstok, J., Mostert, J. C., Greven, C. U., & Hoogman, M. (2022). A qualitative and quantitative study of self-reported positive characteristics of individuals with ADHD. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 922788. Read it
- Wiklund, J., Patzelt, H., & Dimov, D. (2016). Entrepreneurship and psychological disorders: how ADHD can be productively harnessed. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 6, 14-20. Read it