How To Guess Someone's MBTI Type

With 16 MBTI types, you have a 6.25% chance of guessing the correct Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) randomly. While 6.25% is low, you get a 93.75% chance to get at least 1 right, 68.75% chance to get 2 right, 31.75% chance to get 3 right.

How are we going to make a smart guess on someone’s MBTI type? The best way to guess intelligently is by exploiting the Myers-Briggs test and breaking down each dichotomy separately before putting all the different letters together, thus forming their MBTI type. Each dichotomy will be separated by:

1. Introversion (I) vs Extraversion (E)

2. Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N)

3. Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)

4. Judging (J) vs Perceiving (P)

The MBTI ubiquitous influence has swept the world off its feet as the king of universal personality tests. Its company (Myers-Briggs Company) had estimated to have earned a whopping 20 million dollars from over 2 million people that take it and from companies that administer it annually.

Even I have to admit that it gets a little tiring to share that I am an ENFJ with the people around me (to those who have asked me of course, I am not a psychopath)

A full MBTI assessment is a psychometric questionnaire of over 80~90 questions, designed to measure people’s preferences in their behavior, perceptions, and choices when making decisions. Everyone falls under 1 out of the 16 different personalities in MBTI.

You can first challenge yourself by reading through this article and then attempting to guess your own MBTI type before taking the actual test to see if your guess was correct! (The link to the actual test will be included below at the end of the article)

Now, you may be wondering what is the point of guessing someone’s MBTI type if there is already a fool-proof assessment for people to take to find out what it already is. Couldn’t you just ask for their MBTI type? Well, the answer to your question is that not everyone around you may have taken the test just yet.

Thus, your newfound ability to guess what their MBTI type might be able to give you a good gauge of the way they think and perceive the world to be. Henceforth, you will be able to understand, empathize and eventually build better relationships with them over time.

Dichotomy 1: Introversion vs Extraversion

Typically, people tend to associate those who love to socialize the most with extroverts and classify those who do not as introverts. However, what if I told you that there is so much more to the difference between extraversion and introversion than simply comparing their willingness to socialize.

The main question that actually separates extraversion and introversion is “Where do they get their energy from?” 

Extroverts crave large amounts of stimulation from events such as parties or gatherings with friends because that is their way to wind down after a long stressful week at work. On the other hand, it is ignorant to identify introverts as shy people. This is because shyness is the fear of social judgment whereas introverts feel most alive when they are in quieter and lower-key settings, and not because they are afraid to interact. Therefore, extroverts get energy from stimuli in the outside world while introverts get energy from self-reflection and staying in their own world.

Here are some distinct instances which are highly noticeable in strong extroverts or introverts for you to tell them apart:

1. Friends

• Introverts prefer enjoying the company of their closest group of friends whereas extroverts love to socialize and put themselves out there to make new friends

2. Openness 

• Introverts are more enclosed and reserved when speaking to someone compared to extroverts who are more comfortable and sociable to share more about their personal life

3. Learning Style

• Introverts learn through observation while extroverts learn through performing it themselves

Dichotomy 2: Sensing vs Intuition

The question that you should ask when guessing if someone is a sensing or intuitive personality type is “How do they take in and process information?”

The key difference between a sensing and intuitive individual is the lens they see their information with. A person who has a sensing personality type assesses information with hard facts and direct answers with their 5 senses whereas a person who leans more towards their intuition assesses information with their gut, analyzing to find deeper and underlying meanings in things.

Here are some examples of situations where you may be able to tell a strong sensing or intuitive individual apart:

1. Storytelling

• Sensors tell a story in a linear fashion where there is a beginning that leads to an end, such as point A causing point B to happen, and so on. On the other hand, intuitive people start their storytelling from a “big picture” or “big message” in mind, and fills in whatever minor details deem necessary into the story thereafter

2. Scope of focus

• Sensors always live in the present and reminisce as compared to an intuitive who focuses more about their future and visions they have for their life

3. Passion for Philosophy 

• Sensors shut off and get bored of all matters that have got to do with philosophies such as the meaning of life whereas an intuitive go passionately on listening and sharing their views and opinions about life philosophies

Dichotomy 3: Feeling vs Thinking

Are you someone who lists out all the pros and cons before making an important decision? If you can resonate with this, you probably have a preference for a thinking personality type. Thinking individuals tend to take a step back before deciding to look at all the information they have at hand, to look at things objectively.

On the other hand, feeling individuals use their emotions to make decisions. “This feels right” is commonly surfaced when a feeling personality makes decisions. However, it is important to be mindful that because feeling individuals are people-oriented, their decision making includes how it might affect others and not just themselves.

To summarize, the crucial element to distinguish between two personality types is – “How do they make decisions?”

These are some situations that you can exploit to tell them apart:

1. Recognition

• Thinking types believe in receiving recognition in their work only when it is completed whereas feeling types prefer receiving recognition in their work in periods of time as they want their work to be noticed every step of the way

2. Problem Solving

• Thinking types problem solve using facts and logic as compared to feeling types that problem solves using personal and people’s feelings

3.  Relationship With People

• Thinkers seem to not realize how their actions or words may affect other people’s feelings and may come across as being blunt while on the other hand feelers are sympathetic and can relate well to other people

Dichotomy 4: Judging vs Perceiving

Look at the image above. You have two very different personalities and situations with the left worker being happy that she has completed her work while even though the right worker still has a lot of work left uncompleted, she is optimistic that she has a lot of time left to complete it. This is the key difference between a judger and a perceiver – “How do they like to go about their lives?”

Judging personalities plan most of the areas in their lives. They are very organized and often plan to make decisions to prepare them for whatever is coming up in their lives. On the other hand, perceivers are more flexible as they rely on their perception of the world to be a signal for change. They are spontaneous, flexible, and open to making changes whenever necessary.

Here are some common instances you will be able to tell a judging and perceiving type apart:

1. Punctuality

• Judgers tend to be more on time because they always plan their route, preparing themselves to leave home at a specific time so that they will not be late whereas perceivers are generally the “late ones” as they only leave home when they think they are supposed to, making last-minute preparations, resulting in them rushing out of the house at the very end

2. The way they speak

• Judgers usually finish their sentence with “ed” because their tasks on their list have been completed as compared to perceivers sentences that are full of “ing” as they are still in the midst of completing their task, some they might not even know that they have until they were recently reminded of

3. Approach to life

• Judgers are more inflexible due to their seriousness towards deadlines and things expected of them while perceivers are more laid back and adaptable, having an “enjoy life now, work later” mindset 

Conclusion:

Now that you have broken down MBTI into 4 different dichotomies, do you have each section’s letter in your mind? If you do, put them all together to form the MBTI you have guessed on yourself or someone else’s personality type to be.

The following link below is the MBTI test which I recommend you to take after guessing what your or your friend’s MBTI type might be:

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Bear in mind that MBTI is based on personal PREFERENCE for each dichotomy. This means that though someone might be a thinker, in another situation that same person might have a preference to act a feeler instead. In other words, just because you are an extrovert, it does not mean you do not enjoy being alone sometimes.

Thus, when you are guessing one’s MBTI, you must take into account a variety of different situations to accurately assess one’s MBTI type. The more situations you take into account, the higher the accuracy of your guess. As your guesses are solely based on what you observe, alongside how preferences behavior would alter in each situation, it will still be difficult to guess someone’s MBTI type. However, over time, you will be able to observe patterns in one’s behavior which can give you a good interpretation of which MBTI personality type that person might have.

References:

1. Mentalhelp.net – ‘Psychological Testing: Myers Briggs Indicator’ https://www.mentalhelp.net/psychological-testing/myers-briggs-type-indicator/

2. Healthline – ‘7 myths about extroverts and introverts that needs to go’ https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/myths-about-introverts-and-extroverts

3. WorldAtlas – ‘How to tell if someone is introverted or extroverted?’ https://www.worldatlas.com/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-introverted-or-extroverted.html

4. Psychology Junkie – ‘Are you a sensor or an intuitive? How to find out?’ https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2015/08/12/are-you-a-sensor-or-an-intuitive-how-to-find-out/

5. Ann C.Holm – ‘Sensing vs Intuition: An exercise to determine your preference’ https://www.annholm.net/2012/04/sensing-versus-intuition-an-exercise-to-identify-your-preference/

6. Psychology Junkie – ‘Thinker or Feeler? The key difference?’ https://personalityjunkie.com/02/thinking-vs-feeling-myers-briggs/

7.  Truity – ‘Judging vs Perceiving’ https://www.truity.com/myers-briggs/judging-vs-perceiving

8. Thought-Catalog – ‘How to recognize each Myers-Briggs personality type in real life?’ https://thoughtcatalog.com/heidi-priebe/2015/07/how-to-recognize-each-myers-briggs-personality-type-in-real-life/

9. HumanMetrics – ‘Determining other people’s personality’ http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/how-to-determine-other-peoples-type

10. Engage Your Strengths – ‘Guessing a personality type in 5 steps’ https://www.engageyourstrengths.com/personality/guessing-personality-type/