Whether it’s first-impressions, brand perception, or discerning political ideologies, we are filtering our understanding through a list of subject qualities based on what we do and don’t like and mostly without consciously realising it.

Shake my hand in an unusual way and I’ll think differently of you (it’s crazy how this matters to some people).

Produce one type of product I really like and I’ll favour many of your other products.

Hold one belief I have and I’ll assume we have a lot in common.

Our intuition leads us to we look for the early signs that confirm what we already know. There is nothing wrong with this on the face of it except when our judgement continually stops there. This is particularly troubling when it comes to complex things like judging a person’s suitability to a work role, choosing a life partner, or whether a company is trustworthy to buy into. When we rely mostly on intuition, our decision-making is more like taking a leap-of-faith and less like a harnessing a skill.

Treat complex things as they often are – time consuming. Invest in your intuition but do it along with developing, or adopting, sound and robust measures that safeguard against being short-changed by our subconscious biases.

It’s true that the simpler our judgement criteria are the faster we can make a call. But equally true is that the more simplistic we make something to be than it is, the more likely that rapid judgement call is to be off.