Instinctive, intuitive both mean not involving, based on, or determined by the ordinary processes of reasoning, but as applied to human mentation they are not normally interchangeable because of consistent differences in connotation.
Instinctive in this connection (see also SPONTANEOUS ) implies a relation to instinct, the more or less automatic and unreasoned reactive behavior characteristic of a natural group (as a species) rather than of the individual; as applied to human mental activity and behavior instinctive stresses sometimes the automatic quality of the reaction, sometimes the fact that it takes place below the level of conscious reasoning and volition whether as a true expression of instinct or as being through habitude as deeply ingrained as instinct.
Intuitive, correspondingly, indicates relationship to intuition, the highly personal intellectual capacity for passing directly from stimulus to response (as from problem to solution or from observation to comprehension) without the intervention of reasoning or inferring; as applied to the human mind and to products of its activities intuitive suggests activity above and beyond the level of conscious reasoning.