# How often do you feel the need to predict people's behaviour?



## Choice (May 19, 2012)

+ Methods, reasons, what do you keep track of


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## Tea Path (Sep 5, 2012)

all the time. Makes working with them easier. Mental catalogue. What people say, how they say it, their body language, eye movement, sweat, dress style, upkeep of shoes, inflections, repeatability, what they say they will do.


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## Mr. Objectivity (Sep 18, 2012)

At this point it has become so innate that I don't even realise I'm doing it.

Why do I do it; probably to anticipate possible outcomes in a situation so it makes dealing with them easier. I'm quite Machiavellian so I mostly try to use it to my advantage as a way to get ahead and get to know them better (not in a way that hurts the other person but rather to raise myself while they remain on the same level).

How do I read other people; any information I have retained about that person, impressions I get off them when interacting with them and observing how they interact with each others. I tend to get more from how they interact with others as I can from a distance decipher what their motives are if any without having to interact with them myself so more of my brain can be used.


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## StateOfDaniel (Oct 11, 2012)

Over the years people, to me, have become rather predictable. It does, however, excite me to no end when I find somebody who is more spontaneous or harder to predict than others. Most of my friends are the odd ones and I love and hate the fact that I can't read them like most people.
Honestly though my main method of prediction when it comes to people probably is deciding what I would do and then predict the opposite, but most of my analysis is done subconsciously.


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## Master Mind (Aug 15, 2011)

StateOfDaniel said:


> Over the years people, to me, have become rather predictable.


By and large, they are.


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## Proteus (Mar 5, 2010)

Mr. Objectivity said:


> At this point it has become so innate that I don't even realise I'm doing it.
> 
> Why do I do it; probably to anticipate possible outcomes in a situation so it makes dealing with them easier.


Pretty much this. I'm just used to picking up on peoples' motivations and intentions to figure out how to deal with them. There isn't really any specific methods I have to figuring this out, it's just something I do. Most people are pretty predictable in how they behave, especially in certain scenarios (work situations and so on).


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## Kizuna (Jul 30, 2011)

I think I "feel" or "sense" the essence of their being and their expectations of me, how they want to be treated, what kind of language to use with them, how to avoid unpleasant situations, how to leave as I came (without conflict), what kind of worldview this person has. Also, some people dislike my egalitarian stance and seem to want to be treated as superior. Pathetic^^


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## WILDFL0WER (Nov 15, 2012)

Almost said:


> *How often do you feel the need to predict people's behaviour?*
> 
> + Methods, reasons, what do you keep track of


lol this made me chuckle for some reason... I never feel a need to, it's just what I do. 

I don't necessarily keep track, like a log book or anything & I guess I ... now that I think about it, it's not so much 'predicting behavior', for me it's putting pieces in place to get the result/outcome I want.

ETA: i.e. I know if I say x to 'joe', it will result in a series of conversations/events that will eventually lead to what I predicted (wanted) to happen, but would have to do xy to 'sam' to get the same result


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## DiamondDays (Sep 4, 2012)

If i know somebody obviously i'm going to predict their reactions. 
It's the essence of knowing somebody.

I don't consciously try to figure out what x is going to do, if i know x well enough i don't have to think about it i just know.

I guess it's the Ne working it's magic. 

I'm usually able to get whatever i want out of an exchange, but i don't "scheme". I just go with the flow.


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## Giga Blender (May 22, 2012)

Being OCPD, most of my time is occupied considering the motives and what drives others to better predict how my actions and future events might result so that I am prepared for them and can maintain control over myself and my surroundings with as little turbulence as possible. There really isn't any methodology to it, just an extreme amount of mental focus and dedication to a pathological, drowning-in-stress, depression-inducing level. I keep track of everything from the positioning of items people leave behind to their rate of breathing.


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## SwordsmanBudo (Nov 19, 2012)

Like some of my fellow INTJ who have already responded I'm almost obsessive in watching and remembering the behavior of others. Sometimes is so I know who to keep at arms length and other times it's to know who I should develop a closer relationship to. I really like to understand what makes people ticks and why they act the way they do.


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## lilysocks (Nov 7, 2012)

I don't think of it as predicting anything, unless something external gives me some cause to articulate it. But it's there in my mind whether I articulate it or not. And as someone else has said, no intentional reason for it. 

I think of it like this. Years and years ago I used to watch my kid playing Little League, and he had this slightly uncanny ability as a defensive player to move BEFORE the ball had been hit. I'm not talking about the simple equations of batter-hits-right-so-shift-here; he would take up that standard ready position while the pitcher was finding the rubber. But as the pitcher delivered the ball, you'd often see him break in some direction that didn't seem to make sense at all, even before the ball had been hit. He had an almost hair-raising ability to get the right jump on a hit, even in 'unforeseeable' circumstances like a broken bat or a grounder going off some divot. I asked him about it once, and being about 10 years old, he just shrugged and said 'Dunno. I just knew it was going to do that.' 

I would have thought I was imagining it, but he used to have this big superbounce ball about the size of a softball, but covered in flat facets like a geodesic dome. I spent hours watching him throw that thing against a wall, with extra bounces off the blacktop mixed in to increase the fun, and do the same thing. Throw it, and be where it was going to be before it had even hit the first surface in the path it was on. Slightly hair-raising, but god it was fun to watch him do it. Mostly because he was having such fun.

'Predicting' people's behaviour, to me, is kind of like that. I don't think there's anything the least bit freaky about it; it's just some kind of vector-processing which is crunching data too varied or too subliminal to be worth hauling up to the light. It really doesn't happen often that people surprise me.


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## Dan E (Jun 15, 2012)

It's not really a need, but a habit I act on without noticing. 

From the moment someone catches my eye, I begin to isolate different aspects of their behavior into separate, predictable groups. Typically, I act as though it begins from the moment we first speak, but that's far from the case.

I keep track of simple and hidden qualities alike. A few I can think of on the spot include kindness, hypocrisy, and consistency in the content delivered.


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## puppies454 (Nov 14, 2012)

Almost never. And I'm pretty good at predicting unless they're super freaking unpredictable/ crazy as hell.


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## Scelerat (Oct 21, 2012)

I do it part subconsciously and if I actually invest effort in it, it's because there is something for me to gain by doing so.


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