People who finish other people’s sentences, anticipate moods, and notice when someone has gone quiet aren’t always intuitive, many learned early to read a room before they felt safe in it

The skill we call intuition is often something else wearing a softer name. The adult who finishes a friend’s sentence before she gets to the end of it, who senses a partner’s mood from the sound of a key in the door, who notices when a colleague has gone three minutes too quiet in a meeting, isn’t necessarily gifted at reading people. Sometimes, they learned very young that paying attention was the safest thing available.

This kind of attunement can look like a personality trait. For some people...