and we're off

[syntheid]

So to kick off some discussion, our poll results are showing a high percentage Intuitive people joining, which is interesting because more broad distribution statistics haven broken it down such that Intuitives seem to usually make up about 25% of the population, opposed to the Sensing's 75%. Introverted and Perceiving types are also minorities, but by much less of a gap, so it's kind of fascinating to me that we're sitting at 85.7% Intuitives right now and no one being strongly Sensing.

I find in my personal life, I associate with a lot of Intuitives as well, despite the fact that we're supposedly outnumbered 3 to 1. I believe this is mostly self-selection tactics of being drawn to those similar to myself, but what about you all? Do you find yourself mostly surrounded with and dealing with Sensing individuals in your personal friend group?

On the Enneagram end, we're showing a large preference for 5 in primaries, and 4 in wings, though as there were no 3s, that was mostly just that the 5s were mostly 5w4. So otherwise, we had (in primaries) two 4s and two 9s, with the second highest wing being... 5 (well, technically "unsure" but of those who know, the secondmost seems to be 5). Which kind of leads me to believe there might be something in personality typing that draws in people with 5-leaning personalities-- what do you think? Why do you like personality typing?

Comments

[sakurablossom]

I've always been interested in anything that claims to explain how people behave - either to better understand myself or those I come into contact with.

[syntheid]

The social sciences are interesting fields to me that way, too. I like the idea of studying the brain and how it works and how people fit together and work as a whole and individually and with what tools.

[tree]

i tend to flock with introverts and intuitives, even online. the poll results didn't surprise me at all. i'd already observed in other communities that introverts and ennea types 2, 4, 5, and 9 are the most likely to be interested in discussing personality typing. perhaps unsurprisingly, those are also the types with which i'm most familiar on a personal level. birds of a feather. :)

[syntheid]

I've never actually joined a community for typing, but the 2/4/5/9 thing makes sense.

My own experience offline is a bit odd, as my friend who was just as interested in typing as I was is actually an 8. And I seem to know a lot of 6s personally which is kind of funny. But they're almost all INxxs so despite the differences, we seemed to connect on that level. :) Most of them... not as interested in typing, though, really just the one 8 friend (and online there is more the usual set).

[seven]

Although it is always funny to find pockets made entirely of people with minority personality types, it does make sense that 'I's and 'N's particularly would flock together. Especially on the internet, where human interaction is on one's own terms and the laws of time and space have little meaning. I know I appreciate and tend to be closer with people who, for example, don't think I'm weird and wrong when I don't want to go out partying and can follow my random leaps of logic and unrelated associations without extensive explanation.

As far as why I like personality typing? I have to admit that I've always been someone who's looked for boxes to put myself in, since as a good 4 wing, I've always felt that there was something inherently 'different' with me and I didn't fit in. (And the 5 part of me absolutely cringes at admitting that publicly. Hah.) It was a revelation to me when I first got in to the Enneagram (and later MBTI) and found a description that matched me pretty perfectly right in there with all the other normal personality types. It's an incredibly useful tool to me for recognizing how I act at different levels of 'healthy', what is motivating me to act that way, and what I can do to be fulfilled in a way that is meaningful to me and doesn't involve me trying to be someone I'm not.

And then, of course, typing other people became one of my favorite games. Because I find it nearly equally as useful in understanding other people's actions and motivations, as well as helping me figure out how to best relate to them.

...Or, as sakurablossom said far more succinctly, "to better understand myself or those I come into contact with." Hah.

[clopen]

Jumping in to say I also find it fascinating that what's healthy behaviour for one type can be unhealthy for another.
The relating-to-people bit I totally agree with!

How do you type people? How often do you manage to type them accurately?

[syntheid]

How do you type people? How often do you manage to type them accurately?

Not answering for her, exactly, but seven and I do kind of type together sometimes (mostly for fictional people), bouncing theories back and forth based on decisions made and actions done and a smidge of overall "feel" of what particular types tend to be like.

How accurate? Dunno, exactly. I know I personally keep a spreadsheet of types I think people are and occasionally review it and sometimes realize I have absolutely no idea why I thought Person X was Type Z at the time because Trait Y totally would make that wrong and why didn't I see that then, but there are some where time and time again I come back and find that it still seems to fit.

[seven]

Hah. This exactly, in fact.

[clopen]

Ah, I see.
Typing fictional people will make an interesting discussion in and of itself :-)

[syntheid]

Not shockingly--

I have to admit that I've always been someone who's looked for boxes to put myself in, since as a good 4 wing, I've always felt that there was something inherently 'different' with me and I didn't fit in. (And the 5 part of me absolutely cringes at admitting that publicly. Hah.) It was a revelation to me when I first got in to the Enneagram (and later MBTI) and found a description that matched me pretty perfectly right in there with all the other normal personality types. It's an incredibly useful tool to me for recognizing how I act at different levels of 'healthy', what is motivating me to act that way, and what I can do to be fulfilled in a way that is meaningful to me and doesn't involve me trying to be someone I'm not.

Me too. And I was going to try to add something, because that seemed really short, but that's... pretty much all I'd want to say.

[pseudo_tsuga]

I always liked personality tests because I have no clue how to describe myself to others so I'm fascinated when someone tries to describe me. My skeptic side says they should be taken with a large grain of salt but I still enjoy looking at them, especially the Enneagram. (I'm a 9, by the way)

[syntheid]

I don't know if it's anything to be skeptical about; it's not (necessarily) a belief system, but more a branch of cognitive science to describe behavior patterns among people. I mean, I know the enneagram, at least, also has groups of people who take it very spiritually, though I am not one of them. But unlike astrology, it's not really about saying you are predetermined to one pattern based on the arbitrary value of your date and time of birth.

Nice to meet, you, by the way. :)

[pseudo_tsuga]

Oh no, I just meant it's somewhat hard to test for accuracy because of confirmation bias, especially when you're typing yourself. I still find it a useful tool though.

Nice to meet you too! And I love your Iroh icon.

[clopen]

I think generally there are a lot more intuitive-identified people in these personality typing communities :)
Personality typing is pretty interesting. I stumbled into it because I was trying to figure out what I would be interested in as a career. It hasn't helped much there. But it has helped me to learn how to relate to other people better. I have often felt alone in the world as an N.

[syntheid]

I was reading through some posts about discussion on the internet that made me wonder if there isn't a higher-than-average population of intuitive-identified people on the internet on a whole, since this medium of communication is kind of ideal for Ns. Multithreaded conversations happening concurrently and referencing back to itself and other branches making it kind of non-linear by nature. I don't know if that's true on a whole, but it is why I like it.

Also oh goodness, yes. I kept hoping my type would just be like "And you will go this path, career-wise," but really they just tell me what I already know: I like art and I like science and I should do something in either art or science. Given I'd already ruled out everything else, it was like "That is not narrowing it down any further than I already did. :\"

[clopen]

Yes, yes! and purportedly you can type someone through how they express themselves in posts, I dunno about that one though. Definitely internet interaction is more non-linear by nature and you can reference more things than you would in a verbal conversation (unless you had an iphone with you ... XD) ... I can't wait for the day all of us have a hivemind in the air or something. :D
I wonder how different we are on the internet from how we are in meatspace though. Like, is there a personality type that we are on the internet, versus how we are in meatspace? Does it bring out certain sides of us by its very nature?

Hmm so true! To a certain extent it was helpful but probably not in that manner—I read posts from people of similar personality types to get a feel for why they dislike certain careers. It's kind of like having multiple selves/lives! XD Also a whole lot of ENFPs saying they inevitably got bored of stuff and job-hopped helped a lot in me not feeling weird.

Though in the end the choice is up to the individual. I suppose, though, that personality type could be a predictor of the *kind* of [a particular occupation] that the person would make ... like, say, intuitive artists might be more inclined towards concept over aesthetics, idk. Or point out your possible weaknesses. Since there is really no one way of approaching a career except where there is an entrenched culture, then you'll just have to figure out how to change things so you work best.

OH I just thought of something more. I read this discussion where people were proposing that ENFPs should follow our Ne over our Te since our Ne is our strongest function when making choices (especially if they come into conflict). That was interesting. So I stopped trying to dissect my career-related thoughts so much.