While he relies on historical data, instinct clearly plays a part in some of his judgments.
Tug had aroused first one instinct, then another; played upon one after another.
In The Theory of the Leisure Class, the instincts of emulation and predation play a major role.
Such instincts also played a role when the governments of fourteen industrialized nations intervened in the civil war that followed the Russian revolution.
Because of campaigns' general lack of ironclad collateral, bankers' political instincts sometimes play a key role in decisions to grant loans.
Every protective instinct in him screamed-he might play along with the charade, but heknew who the wolf was!
He returned to his original position, wondering if his instinct had played him false.
I rather doubt he's felt that way on the basis of any reasoned consideration of the evidence, but his instincts have not played him false where we are concerned.
It seems to me that the instinct for survival plays as much a role in the trust or distrust among the races as genetics.
I haven't seen your instincts play us false yet.