There’s a book by Gavin de Becker called The Gift Of Fear which primarily focuses on judging risk and predicting violence, but one of the key points he raises is the importance of listening to your gut instinct about a situation or a person. If there’s a hint of something that’s ‘off’ about a person or situation, we tend to rationalise it away and ingore it, but often it’s worth paying attention.

That, combined with being able to say no without being made to justify one’s self is a useful tool in many situations. Many people are not taught to say no and stick to their guns because of constraints of social niceties — not coming across as rude and standoffish. When someone is trying to use social pressure as leverage for coercion, that’s a pretty strong warning marker.

My 2 cents.